Riley apology riles Jose

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho wants to know if referees’ chief Mike Riley plans to make a habit of making conciliatory phone calls to Premier League managers aggrieved by decisions of his officials.

In apologising to West Brom following the controversial award of a penalty to Chelsea in the last round of top-flight fixtures, Mourinho believes Riley was “publicly exposing” Andre Marriner.

Marriner awarded Chelsea a stoppage-time spot-kick, converted by Eden Hazard, to earn a draw, when Ramires went down after colliding with Steven Reid.

West Brom boss Steve Clarke was furious and Riley issued an apology.

“I’m very curious to know the consequences of it,” said Mourinho.

“At least now the referees know, they know one thing.

“If in a controversial — I’m not saying a mistake — decision that hypothetically — and, I repeat, hypothetically — favours Chelsea, they know they are going to be publicly exposed by their boss. That they know.

“They can make, hypothetically, mistakes, favouring other teams, nothing happens.

“If hypothetically — and, I repeat, hypothetically — they make a mistake, they are publicly exposed by their own boss.

“I’m very curious to know if it was just an isolated phone call.

“I’m interested to know if this is the start, that from now on it’s going to be the same for everybody.”

Following Mourinho’s comments, the Professional Game Match Officials Limited clarified that it was West Brom, and not Riley, who opted to make a private conversation public in relation to the penalty award.

Mourinho was eager to know if Hull, Norwich, Swansea and Aston Villa received phone calls for perceived mistakes made by officials against them.

Swansea boss Michael Laudrup on Thursday revealed he too had spoken to Riley with regards a controversial penalty award — in his side’s 3-3 draw with Stoke — but declined to reveal the details of the conversation.