JOSÉ MOURINHO may have been fêted in the Middle East during the past week, but negotiating the middle ground on the eve of Chelsea’s disciplinary hearing in Switzerland has proved far more problematic. The Chelsea manager’s capacity for controversy caused more red faces as a Spanish newspaper printed a fresh rant against Uefa, European football’s governing body, which will consider tomorrow the furore arising from the first leg of the Champions League tie against Barcelona.

Ironically, given that Chelsea have been accused of making “false declarations” regarding an alleged half-time meeting between Frank Rijkaard, the Barcelona coach, and Anders Frisk, the referee who has since retired, Mourinho denied making the comments.

Regardless of their veracity, the remarks were nothing if not embarrassing as they were transmitted around the news wires. Chelsea had until 5pm yesterday to state their case to Uefa over the Frisk affair, with Mourinho, Steve Clarke, his assistant, and Les Miles, the club’s security officer, facing disrepute charges.

Barcelona could also be in hot water in the fallout over the bitterly contested affair. Chelsea have included in their report to Uefa that players of the Spanish club wrecked their dressing-room at Stamford Bridge, causing hundreds of pounds of damage, after being knocked out.

The quotes attributed to Mourinho in La Vanguardia provided an untimely reminder of his ability to court trouble. “I have been accused when they have no proof . . . they have taken sides without listening to our side of things and we have already been found guilty even before Uefa passes judgment,” he was reported as saying. “They have to analyse and investigate the facts.”

Chelsea moved swiftly to deny that Mourinho had uttered the words, but the more jaundiced minds at Uefa may accept them as evidence of a runaway ego. For their part, Chelsea have good reason to feel that tomorrow’s meeting in Nyon will be less a disciplinary hearing than a kangaroo court. In the past three weeks, Uefa officials have labelled Mourinho an enemy of football and a liar, as well as stating categorically that the alleged meeting between Rijkaard and Frisk was a fabrication.

The situation has reached the farcical stage of Chelsea saying that Mourinho did not say something about an event that Uefa says did not happen. With that in mind, there is just cause to view tomorrow as a sentencing rather than a trial.

With his reputation the subject of daily debate, an old friend came to Mourinho’s aid last night. Deco, the Barcelona midfield player, suggested that the abrasive front of the man who managed him at FC Porto had been forced upon him.

“Mourinho has had to live a very different life in England, possibly due to the pressure and the sensational newspapers,” he said. “In England, you have to defend yourself with as much effort as you can and that is different to what it was like in Portugal.”

A disagreeable consequence tomorrow is likely to prompt a Chelsea appeal. Mourinho and Peter Kenyon, the chief executive, will not travel to Switzerland for the hearing, with the club instead pinning modest hopes on a “very detailed” written submission.

Their absence suggests that they feel that the matter is a fait accompli, an opinion vented by Kenyon last week when he said that Chelsea had little chance of a fair hear- ing and that Uefa had inflamed the situation by calling Mourinho, Clarke and Miles “liars”.

Mourinho’s admission that he had not seen the incident that provoked the high- profile spat of name-calling cannot help his case, but whether Uefa can help to shed any light on what happened in the Nou Camp tunnel remains to be seen. Chelsea are not holding their breath.

ME AND MY BIG MOUTH . . .

Freddy Shepherd and Douglas Hall

Not realising they are speaking to an undercover reporter, the Newcastle United directors mock Alan Shearer, the club’s fans and the city’s women. The derision has flowed back in their faces ever since.

Robert Maxwell

In 1983, the Oxford United chairman says his plan to merge the club with Reading will be stopped “over my dead body”. It was stopped.

David Beckham

The England captain says his yellow card for a late foul in the victory over Wales was acquired deliberately and is forced to apologise.

Clinton Morrison

The forward implies that he is better than Michael Owen after Crystal Palace beat Liverpool 2-1 in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final in 2001. However, Morrison has a stinker in the return as Palace are thrashed 5-0.

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