GiveMeSport
·29 September 2023
Jose Mourinho's infamous rant about Barcelona's refereeing decisions in 2011

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·29 September 2023
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Jose Mourinho's rant about Barcelona from 2011 is going viral amid corruption investigations. Barcelona face charges of corruption over payments made to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, a former vice-president of the referees' committee in return for favorable decisions.
On Thursday, Spanish police raided the offices of the committee as part of an investigation into the alleged corrupt payments. Uefa is also investigating the matter but Barcelona deny any wrongdoing and no arrests were made during the search.
It's suggested Barcelona paid 8.4m euros (£7.4m) to Negreira and his Dasnil 95 company. The payments were investigated ass part of a tax probe into Negreira's company. Barca were seen to make payments totalling a reported 1.4m euros (£1.2m) between 2016 and 2018 and paid Negreira 7m euros (£6.2m) between 2001 and 2018 which is when he then left the referees' committee.
The Spanish club admitting paying the Dasnil 95 company, describing as "an external technical consultant" to create video reports on officials "with the aim of complementing the information required by the coaching staff". They said paying for reports was "a habitual practice among professional clubs".
Of course, since the reports have emerged fans have been busy digging out favourable refereeing decisions in Barcelona's favour from down the years. But another clip that has gone viral is a Jose Mourinho press conference from 2011. At the time, Mourinho was in charge of Real Madrid and had just lost 2-0 in the Champions League semi final first leg against Pep Guardiola's Barcelona.
It was then, that embarked on one of his most infamous rants. It would go down in history.
"If I tell Uefa what I really think and feel, my career would end now. Instead I will just ask a question to which I hope one day to get a response: Why? Why? Why Ovrebo? Why Busacca? Why De Bleeckere? Why Stark? Why? Because every semi-final the same things happen. We are talking about an absolutely fantastic football team, so why do they need that? Why? Why does a team as good as they are need something [extra] that is so obvious that everyone sees it?
"Why Ovrebo [two] years ago [when the Norwegian referee did not give Chelsea a series of penalties against Barcelona]? Why couldn't Chelsea go to the final? Last year it was a miracle that Inter got there playing with 10 men for so long. A miracle. Why weren't there four penalties against Chelsea [in 2009]? Why send off [Arsenal's Robin] Van Persie [in the last 16]? Where does their power come from?
"It could have been 0-0 tonight, but then suddenly we are down to 10 men and they have a free path to find solutions that they could not find before then: we could have played for three hours and they would not have scored. But today we have seen that it is not difficult – it is impossible.
"The question," Mourinho continued, "is why? I don't know if it is the Unicef sponsorship or if it is because they are nice guys. I don't understand. Congratulations to Barcelona on being a great team and congratulations for all the other stuff you have which must be very hard to achieve. They have power and we have no chance. Chelsea had bans for Drogba and Bosingwa; Wenger and Nasri were banned for Arsenal; me today. I don't know why. All I can do is leave that question here in the air and hope that one day I will get the response. They have to get to the final, and they'll get there, full stop."
He also had a message for his opposite number, Guardiola, and the way he has won his previous Champions League titles.
"Josep Guardiola is a fantastic coach," he said, "but I have won two Champions Leagues. He has won [only] one Champions League and that is one that would embarrass me. I would be ashamed to have won it with the scandal of Stamford Bridge and, if he wins it this year, it will be with the scandal of the Bernabéu. I hope that one day he can win a proper Champions League. Deep down, if they are good people, it cannot taste right for them. I hope one day Guardiola has the chance of winning a brilliant, clean championship with no scandal."