New reports have claimed that Jose Mourinho flouted UEFA's touchline ban in 2005 by using an earpiece, handwritten notes and a loud speaker before escaping detection via a laundry basket. Mourinho's defiance has long been suspected yet its exact nature has remained shrouded in mystery for over two years. The Portuguese manager was barred from having any contact with his players during the Champions League tie with Bayern Munich as punishment for questioning the integrity of referee Anders Frisk before and after the Blues' clash with Barcelona in the previous round. However, an inside source has now revealed to The Times and Daily Mail how Mourinho remained in communication with both the Chelski bench and his team throughout the tie. According to The Mail, 'Gaining access to the dressing room for the first leg at Stamford Bridge was simple enough. He arrived shortly after lunch, even though it would mean waiting more than four hours for his players to join him. "In the afternoon you haven't got anyone around," said the source. "He just walked in." It meant Mourinho was in place to give his pre-match team talk and all-important half-time address and watch the game on the television that is in the dressing room. "You can get mobile reception in the dressing-room, the source said. "It depends what network and in what room."'
Aware that the ploy of communicating directly to Faria throughout the opening 45 minutes had been detected, the Chelski coach apparently settled for a simpler method in the second half: writing notes from the dressing-room which goalkeeping coach Silvinho Louro would then retrieve and pass on to Steve Clarke, Mourinho's assistant.
And then it was time to make his incredible escape. 'Mourinho was not waiting for the players at the end of the match, which Chelsea won 4-2, because he had already allegedly clambered into one of the kit skips. He was wheeled out of the dressing-room by members of the backroom staff and, it is believed, back into the leisure club in the Chelsea Village hotel at the ground, where it had been reported that he spent the entire evening.
'In a passable impression of Inspector Clouseau, Uefa's hapless officials left none the wiser. Insiders claim Mourinho was so thrilled that he joked openly about his trip in the skip in front of his players at training the next morning,' reports The Times. Emboldened by his escape, Mourinho then brazenly responded to media insinuations Faria had not used his hat just to protect him from the cold by ordering his fitness coach to attend the second leg's pre-match press conference in his place. Nor was his nerve wavering.
Undeterred by the mounting suspicion, Mourinho's ruse for the second leg in Germany was just as remarkable as his laundry basket getaway. Having made an ostentatious appearance in the stands at the Olympic Stadium, Mourinho complained of media harassment and duly returned to the team hotel to enjoy its convenient privacy. According to the source, a loud-speaker had been set up in the Chelski dressing room, enabling Mourinho to talk to his players at half-time on the telephone.
'"There was a massive speaker," a source said. "José was at the hotel." Uefa's representatives had surpassed themselves yet again by approaching Faria to check if there was anything under his hat. There wasn't.' Despite the revelations, Mourinho is unlikely to face retribution from the game's governing body. Their fingers burnt once before, it appears that UEFA are in no mood to confront the Chelski manager over the allegations.
"It was a crisis episode, as you remember, that everyone is better off forgetting," William Gaillard, the organisation's director of communications, said yesterday. "We simply wish all four clubs in the semi-finals the best of luck."
What a cunning guy... but smart fellow... Escape in a laundry basket 