Mourinho launches charm offensive

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho today insisted that any punishment from the Football Association for his comments concerning Alex Ferguson or the antics of his players would be unacceptable and unfair.

Mourinho hit back after the FA confirmed they were examining comments he made during an interview which was aired on the club’s own TV channel.

The Blues boss had escaped action from the FA yesterday for his comments concerning the half-time conduct of referee Neale Barry and United boss Ferguson during the first leg of their Carling Cup semi-final at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.

But he sparked renewed interest from the FA last night when he accused United’s players of cheating in an interview on Chelsea TV.

In a fresh charm offensive today, Mourinho insisted he would go mob-handed to Soho Square to fight any disrepute charge and maintained he had no feud with the United boss.

Indeed, he revealed he would be taking a bottle of Portuguese wine to share with Ferguson after the return leg at Old Trafford in a fortnight because the United manager had complained bitterly about the vintage they had drunk in Mourinho’s office after the first leg.

Mourinho said: “I will be happy to go to the FA with the five, six or seven people who were with me in the tunnel.

“I won’t accept any fine; if they fine me I will have to pay, but I won’t accept it because I did nothing wrong. Since the first day I arrived in England, I’ve done nothing wrong with referees.

“I know I could be punished for pointing out that someone else has done something wrong. So if the FA do it, I think it will be unfair.

“I don’t think they should punish Sir Alex for what he did, I think they should just tell referees not to allow it whether they are the top manager in the country, a guy has who just arrived or a lower division manager.

“I always say what I think and feel, I am not worried by the consequences. I live better with the consequences than with my mouth closed and keeping what I feel I have to say inside. If the FA want me to go there and say what happened in those 10 metres, I will go.”

Mourinho sparked today’s events when he told Chelsea TV: “Sir Alex was really clever, if you can say that, at half-time by putting some pressure on the ref. In the second half, it was whistle and whistle, fault and fault and cheat and cheat.”

He claimed today his comments were not directed at Barry but at what he perceived to be the tendency of United’s players to fall down at the first touch.

He also admitted that the use of the word “cheat” may have been the wrong one in the circumstances, yet he still hinted that United’s players were diving.

Mourinho said: “Maybe the word is not the correct one and it is not in relation to the referee. It was in relation to players trying to get faults after faults. Maybe cheat is not the correct word. For me, cheat means when a player gets one touch and they dive.”

The Chelsea manager went on to reveal that he repeated the comments he made in the post-match press conference to Ferguson when he was in his office after the game.

Mourinho added: “I wanted to achieve nothing by saying what I did. I just want the truth and people to be the same in football.

“I want the first referee in England to come out and say that Jose Mourinho spoke with him at half-time or at the end of the game about the match.

“My relationship with the referee is during the game. It is to wish them luck in the tunnel before the game starts and sometimes to say goodbye or have a good trip back. Nothing more than that.

“I would never go to see a referee at half-time because they human beings and should not be under pressure. They can and do make mistakes and we are not there to put pressure on them. We are there to help, or if not to help, then we do not disturb them.

“I want to hear from the first referee to say that at half-time I walked with him, spoke with him about mistakes or that I shouted in his face.

“What I want to say and show is that we must all be the same. I don’t speak with referees and I don’t want other managers to speak with referees. There is a rule. One thing is to speak and another is to shout.”

But he said there was no point in trying to hype up the anti-Ferguson feeling in time for the return leg because there is no feud between them at all.

Mourinho revealed: “There is nothing against Sir Alex. After the game we were together in my office and we laughed and talked and when we go to Man Utd I will take a very good bottle of wine because the wine we drank was very bad and he was complaining.

“It is my birthday when we go to Old Trafford, so I will go with a beautiful bottle of Portuguese wine to enjoy with him at the end of the game.

“He is a great manager, he is clever and used his power and his prestige. The referee should not allow it. I have a lot of respect for the big man. I call him boss because he is the manager’s boss.

“There are no mind games just a good relationship but I think we must all be the same. I am sure because I am a young guy just arrived in England that if I shout to a referee in the tunnel, he would kick me out.

“But I think he is a top man and he deserves to be. To be ‘Sir’ in your country means a lot but during the 90 minutes we are all the same. I just want a good game of football without influences.

“He already knew what I had said. I said it to the press and I repeated it to him. Then we laughed together. He has always been nice to me. He had one bad reaction to me in Porto but 15 days later in the next game it was completely forgotten.

“He’s the top manager in the country. Maybe when I become 60, the kids will call me the same.”