For hvem det måtte interessere, så er der lidt nyt i sagen om Jose Mourinhos kontrovers med dommerne under og efter Cremonese-kampen. Corriere dello Sport kunne torsdag morgen bringe en mere uddybende beretning om hændelserne, der bl.a. synes at vise, at fjerdedommer Marco Serras hånende kommentarer imod Mourinho fandt sted allerede inden udvisningen. Nedenstående er et sammenklip fra Football Italia og Romapress:
According to the Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport, Serra taunted Mourinho during the game on Tuesday, repeatedly indicating to the Special One to remain quiet: “Go home, everyone’s taking the piss out of you.” To which Mourinho responded, “Watch yourself, you better watch yourself.”
Upon getting a red card from match official Piccinini, Mourinho left the touchline screaming, “You should be sending him off, not me!”
At full-time, Mourinho entered the referee’s dressing room to confront Serra. According to a report of Corriere dello Sport, which quotes an informed source at the Stadio Zini, Mourinho had knocked on the door of the referee’s dressing room shortly after full-time and was let in. Inside was the referee Marco Piccinini and his assistants, a federal inspector, and after a few moments, Vito Scala and a couple of counterparts from Cremonese joined them. Loudly, to be heard by everyone, Mourinho vented: “The last time I was sent off was at the Olimpico (Roma-Torino), I went to the referee’s dressing room to apologise.” Coincidentally, Piccinini was the fourth official on that occasion, who confirmed the coach’s story, recalling that he had added that he was not at all satisfied with his behaviour on the pitch. Mourinho then turned to Serra: “If you’ve got balls, if you are a man, repeat what you told me on the pitch, then you have to apologize and we can leave it at that.” To which Serra replied, “Apologize for what? I don’t have to apologize to anybody. I didn’t say anything.”
The Italian newspaper reports that this was the instance Mourinho lost his wits and began shouting in the referee’s dressing room. “Liar! You’re a piece of sh*t! You should be ashamed of yourself. I try not to think that you’re from Turin and you don’t want me on the bench on Sunday night…” he said, referring to the upcoming league match with Juventus on Sunday. Serra reportedly replied in a sarcastic tone, “There it is. That’s what I expected to hear from you. I knew you’d come up with this story.”
På den baggrund finder Corriere dello Sports redaktør, Ivan Zazzaroni, at Mourinhos straf bør annulleres og at man i stedet burde træde ind over for fjerdedommeren: “Mourinho only wanted Serra to apologise, that’s why he deserves no punishment.” Dertil tilføjer at han, at ”the arrogance of referees is well-known” i Italien og Serie A. La Gazzetta dello Sport er af en anden holdning, og mener, at der er en klar tendens til at det er dommernes eller bestemte spilleres skyld, hver gang Roma taber: ”There is always somebody else to blame, except him. This is also an art, after all. Confuse ideas, mix the cards and get away with every situation as the victim and never as the guilty one.”
Mourinho er blevet idømt to spilledages karantæne og en bøde på €10.000 for episoden. AS Roma har appelleret dommen. Dertil har FIGC’s procura federale taget sagen op til nærmere undersøgelse. Det italienske dommerforbund AIA, der ellers støtter sine to involverede dommere (dvs. fjerdedommer Marco Serra og hoveddommer Marco Piccinini), har valgt at lade dem begge sidde over i næste runde af Serie A.