Jose Mourinho sent off after gesture towards referee in Roma draw | OneFootball

Jose Mourinho’s spell in charge of AS Roma is proving to be a wild ride.

It seems barely a week goes by without the Portuguese coach making headlines for one reason or another.

Last month he questioned the psychological makeup of his players after they surrendered a 3-1 lead to lose to Juventus.

“There are people in this locker room who are a bit too nice, a bit too weak,” the 59-year-old said.

Meanwhile, he raged at the officials earlier in February after a goalless draw against Genoa.

“This is where we are, we are considered a small club,” Mourinho complained.

Mourinho was sent off on Saturday

At this point, you can expect to see some Mourinho controversy on your timeline whenever Roma play and so it proved in their 2-2 draw against Verona on Saturday.

Mourinho was sent off in second-half stoppage time after referee Luca Pairetto grew tired of his behaviour.

The Roma boss was upset throughout the match – and he made his feelings known.

Mourinho’s telephone gesture

After his constant complains, Mourinho even had the nerve to produce a telephone gesture with his hand towards Pairetto.

It was a seemingly innocuous move but upon further investigation, there might have been something insincere to it.

As pointed out by @francescalcio_ on Twitter, Mourinho’s gesture could have been a reference to Pairetto’s dad, Pierluigi, who was involved in the Calciopoli refereeing scandal that marred Italian football in 2006.

What was Calciopoli?

Calciopoli was a match fixing scandal in which Juventus executives were found to be affecting refereeing assignments in Serie A. Pierluigi Pairetto, the president of the Italian Referees’ Association, was given a 42-month ban from football and a 16-month prison sentence, but he was later acquitted.

The case came to light after thousands of hours of phone calls were unearthed via wire-tapped phone calls.

So perhaps Mourinho was referencing Calciopoli with his gesture to Luca Pairetto.

If so, that’s an extremely bold move from the Roma boss.

Roma 2-2 Verona

Mourinho watched his side fight back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 thanks to goals from Cristian Volpato and Edoardo Bove, two teenagers who saved the Giallorossi.

However, Roma are now winless in their past three Serie A matches and 15 points behind leaders AC Milan.