Jose Mourinho finally confirms a famous rumour from his Chelsea days

in , , , , , , ,

Jose Mourinho has finally opened up about how he circumvented a Uefa ban by hiding in a laundry basket to give a team talk to his Chelsea players in 2005.

The infamous laundry basket incident came after Mourinho was given a two-game stadium ban for the clubs’ Champions League quarter-final matches against Bayern Munich.

Mourinho’s laundry basket incident: what happened? Five key things to know…

  1. Mourinho is believed to have arrived at Stamford Bridge on the day of the match long before Uefa officials arrived.
  2. He stayed in the dressing room and delivered team talks before the match and during half-time.
  3. It is also alleged that Mourinho kept in contact with assistant Rui Faria for the first-half but contact was switched to goalkeeping coach Silvino Louro for the second after suspicion aroused.
  4. Louro kept heading down the tunnel and reemerging with a piece of paper, which happened to coincide with a substitution taking place.
  5. It is then believed that Mourinho left the stadium just before the match finished in a laundry basket to avoid detection, which he has since confirmed.

The Portuguese was originally charged for misconduct during the Blues’ round-of-16 clash with Barcelona and received the two-game stadium ban. The story first emerged in 2007, but Mourinho has only now spoken about the incident.

“I go to the dressing room during the day so I was there from midday and the game is seven o’clock. I just want to be in the dressing room when the players arrive,” the 55-year-old said on beIN Sports.

“I went there and nobody saw me. The problem was to leave after. And Stewart Bannister the kit man put me in the basket. It was a little bit open so I could breathe.

“But when he is taking it outside the dressing room, the UEFA guys were following and desperate to find me so he closed the box and I couldn’t breathe! When he opened the box I was dying! I am serious! I was claustrophobic, I promise! It’s true!”

The west London club subsequently clinched a 4-2 victory in the first match and went through to the semi-finals 6-5 on aggregate, though they were ultimately eliminated by Liverpool in the penultimate stage.

Chelsea released a statement in 2007 after reports of the incident first surfaced, stating that the story only entered circulation to undermine the team just before a Champions League semi-final match against Liverpool two years later.

The statement read: “The situation is very clear. Both matches were controlled by Uefa and they were more than satisfied on both nights that their ruling was intact, hence the statements that were issued by Uefa at the time and subsequently.

“The only reason to publish this so close to a big match is to serve an agenda that is intended to undermine our team.”

“Classic Jose” – fans react to Mourinho’s admission

The recently-sacked Manchester United manager has forged a reputation for producing moments of controversy throughout his career, but this latest admission has been met largely by humour rather than dissent from the football community.

The post Jose Mourinho confirms infamous laundry basket story from Chelsea days appeared first on Squawka News.



From Squawka NewsSquawka News http://bit.ly/2CCj2WJ
Labels: , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)