I Wore Microphone To ‘Protect’ Myself Says Mourinho

AS Roma boss Jose Mourinho claims he wore a microphone to ‘protect’ himself from the referee during his club’s 1-1 draw with Monza on Wednesday night.

The Portuguese tactician was unimpressed with the way referee Danielle Chiffi conducted the game, and believed the Italian got many decisions wrong against his team.

One of Chiffi’s decisions was the marching order given to AS Roma’s defender Zeki Celik in the 96th minute.

” I went to the game with a microphone. I recorded everything,” the AS Roma manager said.

” From the moment I left the locker room, to the moment I returned – I protected myself.

“He [Chiffs] is the worst. Technically horrible. Zero empathy. Zero communication. Zero Awareness.

” A Second yellow card to a guy who slips in the 96th… I stopped working 20-30 minutes from the end because I knew he would give me a red card for anything.

” I didn’t give him the opportunity, I decided no, that’s enough.”

Stephan El Shaarawy’s goal was equalized by Monza’s defender Luca Caldirola with the result leaving Roma in seventh position in the league.

” Believe me, I have dealt with many bad referees. ‘Usually’ when I talked about referees, it is because they have a direct influence on the game.

“Unfortunately, this is too a sign of Roma’s weakness as a club, because we do not have the strength of other clubs who can say we don’t want this referee.”

Mourinho had previously in February, had issues with the fourth official in Roma’s 2-1 defeat at Cremonese where he said he was spoken to in an ‘unjustifiable way’ and threatened to take legal action.

The Portuguese man was sent off and given a two-match suspension for the confrontation.