ITV responds to Twitter criticism at cutting Mourinho interview short

ITV has defended its decision to cut short an interview with Jose Mourinho just when it appeared the Real Madrid manager was about to reveal his future plans.

The post-match interview with Mourinho was ended abruptly and ITV went to the advertisement break before the News at Ten.

An ITV statement read: “Our reporter Gabriel Clarke managed to land an unexpected interview with Jose Mourinho with only two minutes left before the end of last night’s Champions League programme on ITV.

“At that stage it was too late to arrange an over-run of the broadcast beyond the allotted time. However, in a very tight, live situation, we showed as much as we possibly could of their exchange to viewers.”

Clarke had asked Mourinho about the match, which saw Real miss out on the Champions League final 4-3 on aggregate despite beating Borussia Dortmund 2-0 on the night.

He then asked: “Maybe next season with Real?’, to which Mourinho replied: ’Maybe not... I want to be where people love me.”

Clarke then ended the interview abruptly saying: “We’ll take that as England. We’ve got to go.”

The decision to cut short the interview was immediately the source of much criticism on social media site Twitter.

Apparently, Mourinho was about to reveal the fourth secret of Fatima when ITV cut him off

— desod (@desodr1) May 1, 2013

.@itvfootball - WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING AT! Jose Mourinho was about to tell you who he was going to manage and you cut him off!? Typical.

— BetBee (@BetBee) April 30, 2013

i've never seen an interview with mourinho cut short in that fashion. like running onto the stage and bundling olivier off mid-soliloquy

— Ken Early (@kenearlys) April 30, 2013