jeudi 28 avril 2011

Mourinho could face UEFA probe; Barca ponder complaint

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho will learn whether he will face a disciplinary probe by the ruling body UEFA once it has received the official match reports on an ill-tempered Champions League semi-final with Barcelona in which Mourinho was sent into the stands.

   A UEFA spokesman told the German Press Agency dpa on Thursday that the body will not open possible disciplinary proceedings until it has received the reports from German referee Wolfgang Stark and the UEFA delegate at Wednesday's match.

   In addition, Barcelona issued a statement on Thursday saying that an "urgent meeting" of the club board was set for later in the day to decide whether to file an official complaint to UEFA about post-match statements from Mourinho in which he suggested that Barca received preferential treatment.

   According to Catalan sports daily Mundo Deportivo on Thursday, "the Barca directors are very annoyed at Mourinho alleging favourable treatment from UEFA towards the club in recent years."

   An online poll taken by Mundo Deportivo showed, on Thursday, that 89 per cent of readers think that the club should file a complaint against the Real coach.

   Mourinho took massive criticism on Thursday in the Catalan media. Television channel TV-3 said that his allegations against Barcelona "were completely false", and that his intention was to "cover up for the failure of his ultra-defensive strategy."

   Radio station RAC-1, for its part, commented that Mourinmho "had shown his true character" by admitting that his strategy was to play for a 0-0 draw.

   The Portuguese coach has become something of a hate figure in Barcelona, since he edged Pep Guardiola's team out of the Champions League at the semi-final stage last season, when in charge of Inter Milan.

   This season, Mourinho has provoked the ire of the Catalan media by claiming that teams do not try hard enough against Barca in the Spanish Liga, and that the Spanish football federation ensures that Barca have a more comfortable match calendar than Real.

   In Wednesday's bad-temepered clash in Madrid, Mourinho was ordered off the coaching bench by Stark in the 62nd minute for protesting a red card against Real defender Pepe to the fourth official.

   Under UEFA rules, a coach who is sent into the stands normally has to serve a coaching bench ban for one match, which would be the return leg in Barcelona on Tuesday.

   However, UEFA could impose harsher sanctions if it deems Mourinho's behaviour a major rule violation or because he is not a first-time offender.

   Mourinho, then in charge of Chelsea, was banned for two Champions League games from the touchline in 2005 after controversial remarks on the referee around a Chelsea-Barcelona tie.

   Barca won Wednesday's game 2-0 from Lionel Messi's double after the ejection of Pepe and said later that they are looking into statements Mourinho made in the post match press conference.

   "Jose Mourinho severely criticised the referee Herr Stark and insinuated that UEFA treated Barça favourably. The club's legal department are now studying whether to take his remarks to the UEFA disciplinary commission," Barca said in a statement.

   Barca quoted Mourinho as saying in the news conference that their coach "Josep Guardiola is a fantastic football coach, but he has won one Champions League which would embarrass me after the scandalous goings on at Stamford Bridge and this year if he wins it again it will be after the scandalous goings on at the Bernabeu."

   Mourinho was referring to the 2009 semi-finals in which Barca got a stoppage time goal at Chelsea, who, for their part, had several penalty appeals turned down by the referee.

   According to Barca, Mourinho also alleged: "I don't know if it's the UNICEF publicity or the friendship of Villar at UEFA, where he is vice president, I don't know if it's because they are so nice, but they have got great power. The rest of us have no chance."

   UNICEF are Barcelona's shirt sponsors and the club backed the re-election of Angel Maria Villar as Spanish football federation president.

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