An unhappy José Mourinho claimed Jürgen Klopp and Arsène Wenger enjoy preferential treatment from officials compared with him on a night when the Manchester United manager stormed out of a BBC interview after informing his questioner he should not hold a microphone “if you don’t know football”.
Mourinho’s ire came after United suffered a ninth Premier League draw of the season in Wednesday’s goalless stalemate with next-to-bottom Hull City, the joint-highest number in the division. During Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Anfield on Tuesday Klopp was told his “passion” was appreciated by the fourth official, Neil Swarbrick. Last month Wenger received a four-match touchline ban for pushing the fourth official Anthony Taylor during a 2-1 win over Burnley.
Mourinho pointed to these episodes after being told to sit down during the game with Hull, the Portuguese becoming increasingly irate at the decisions of the referee, Mike Jones, and his assistants. “If I speak I am punished. I don’t want to be punished,” he said before citing a series of examples of perceived unfair decisions, including his sending off during the 0-0 draw with Burnley in October, and a six-game ban for assistant, Rui Faria, when the pair were previously at Chelsea in 2014.
“You [the media] simply have to just tell the truth and, if you go game after game with Manchester United and you see what happened here with Manchester City, what happened here with Burnley, what happened here with West Ham, what happened at Stoke, what happened almost everywhere, you do your job and you do a public service, I think.
“Don’t ask me questions that I cannot answer. You know clearly that I am different. I am different. The rules for me are different. I am different in everything, I watch my team play in a hotel, I was forbidden to go to the stadium, my assistant [Rui Faria] had a six-match stadium ban and he didn’t touch anyone.
“Yesterday one fourth official told to a manager [Klopp]: ‘I enjoy very much your passion, so do what you want to do.’ Today I was told sit down or I have to send you to the stands, so everything is different for me, so don’t ask me questions that put me in a difficult situation, so to end the story.”
Mourinho’s decision to walk away from the BBC reporter came when asked to explain precisely what upset him about Jones’s officiating. “If you don’t know football, you shouldn’t be with a microphone in your hand,” he said.