Mourinho Called Riley 'son of a Whore'

Jose Mourinho admitted last night that his frustration with the referee Mike Riley’s performance during yesterday’s FA Cup quarter-final against Tottenham Hotspur prompted him to spring to the edge of his technical area and berate the official as a "filho da puta" ("son of a whore").

The Chelsea manager, who last night attended his side’s Champions League quarter-final opponents Valencia’s game against Osasuna, "politely" confronted Riley in the tunnel at half-time to complain about a succession of decisions which he perceived to be unfair to his team. The Premiership champions rallied late to draw 3-3 having trailed by two goals at the interval, though Mourinho was captured on television swearing at the referee.

"I say these kind of words 10 times in every 15 words," said Mourinho, with a smile . "If you had a microphone on the dug-out you would hear them all the time.

The word can be abusive if you perceive it to be abusive. I say it to myself, I say it to my players, that word which I don’t want to repeat. I say it 50 times a game, 50 times in training and I don’t want to be offensive to anybody. I can be emotional but I’m polite. I don’t want to be off ensive with anyone. It’s exactly the same word that I use when the ball hits the post."

It is not the fi rst time this season that Mourinho has criticised Riley. "All season, it’s not been easy in matches with Mr Riley," said the Portuguese. "Against Liverpool [Mohamed] Sissoko should have been sent off and then, five minutes later, Michael Ballack is out [ sent off]. Against Reading we lost two goalkeepers [Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini to injury after clashes with opposing players] and no opponent got even a yellow card. But what can I say? He’s a good referee.

"Too many decisions went against us. I don’t think big decisions and I’m not saying it had a big influence on the result, but we are not happy. But that’s football. I approached him in the tunnel, always in a polite way. I was polite, he was polite. That’s the way I do [it] when I do [it]. I told him that. But it worked the other way because the second half was worse."

Tottenham’s head coach, Martin Jol, spoke with Riley as the players left the pitch at the interval - "I just told him not to let the crowd influence him," said the Dutchman - and conceded his side had missed a wonderful opportunity to inflict a first home domestic defeat on Mourinho, excluding one on penalties, since Porto lost to Beira Mar in February 2002.

"It’s still a great compliment to my players that we are disappointed only to have drawn at Stamford Bridge," said Jol. "We have scored 20 goals in six matches and it’s been a long time since Chelsea last conceded three here. We’ll play them at home and we generally play even better at White Hart Lane." Dimitar Berbatov is likely to miss Wednesday’s Uefa Cup game there against Braga because of a groin injury.