Mourinho dubbed "the enemy of football"
(soccernet.espn.go.com)
Updated: 2005-03-14 15:45

The chairman of UEFA's referee's committee says coaches are indirectly to blame for the kind of incidents that prompted Anders Frisk to retire and described Chelsea's Jose Mourinho as "the enemy of football".

England first division club Chelsea's boss Jose Mourinho is described as "the enemy of football" by the chairman of UEFA's referee's committee. Mourinho is blamed for Swedish referee Frisk 's announcement of retirement owing to Chelsea fans'death threats to him.

Swede Frisk retired from refereeing with immediate effect on Friday having received death threats after Barcelona's 2-1 first-leg win over Chelsea in the Champions League last month.

"It's the coaches who whip up the masses and actually make them threaten people to death," Volker Roth told the daily Aftonbladet. "We can't accept that one of our absolutely best referees is forced to quit because of this."

"People like Mourinho are the enemy of football."

Mourinho accused his Barcelona counterpart Frank Rijkaard of trying to influence the match by speaking to Frisk during halftime of the match at the Nou Camp.

Frisk's dismissal of Chelsea striker Didier Drogba early in the second half made matters even worse and Chelsea skipped the mandatory press conference after the match. Mourinho's conduct is now being investigated by UEFA.

The London club won the second leg 4-2 to claim a 5-4 aggregate victory and a place in the quarter-finals.

"It's obviously not okay for a coach to put this much pressure on a referee as Mourinho did in this case," said Swiss referee Urs Meier, who was the subject of media fuelled hate campaign by British fans after disallowing England's 90th minute goal in the Euro 2004 quarter-final against Portugal.

"He (Mourinho) has to be punished. UEFA and FIFA have to protect referees from attacks like this."

Danish referee Kim Milton Nielsen told the paper: "When you're in Mourinho's seat you've got to take more responsibility and not make statements that will shed water on the mill for the hooligans."

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