There are many captivating images of José Mourinho — sliding on his knees in celebration, hurling a championship medal into the crowd, standing moodily in a designer coat — but perhaps none as striking as the idea of the Chelsea manager cramming himself into a kit trolley so that he could be smuggled out of Stamford Bridge.

But that is precisely what it is alleged did happen in defiance of a touchline ban from Uefa. The Times has been told that, in an episode from a Carry On film rather than a Champions League quarter-final, one of the world’s leading managers apparently hid in the Stamford Bridge dressing-room and then fled the scene in a laundry skip to evade Uefa officials.

Mourinho would have been risking unprecedented sanctions if he had been caught and his apparent willingness to flout the laws so audaciously is perhaps the most compelling evidence yet of his win-at-all-costs mentality.

His extraordinary antics allegedly came in the quarter-final two years ago against Bayern Munich and the time lapse means that the European governing body will almost certainly choose to turn a blind eye unless it receives a formal complaint. “It was a crisis episode, as you remember, that everyone is better off forgetting,” William Gaillard, Uefa’s director of communications, said yesterday. “We simply wish all four clubs in the semi-finals the best of luck.”

Dressing-room sources have confirmed the allegations, although it is a sign of the loyalty to Mourinho that the full details have taken so long to emerge. As one insider said: “It was just kept in-house, sort of thing.”

Mourinho had been handed his two-match ban after the explosive meetings with Barcelona in the previous round and his allegations that Anders Frisk, the referee, had been influenced by Frank Rijkaard, the Barcelona coach, during the interval. Mourinho was branded an “enemy of football” by one Uefa official but, convinced that he had been unjustly punished, it is said he set about defying the ban on him contacting his players or backroom staff in the two matches against Bayern.

Presumably, he believed that direct communication with his team could give them the edge and not even his harshest critic could question his powers of motivation and leadership.

The allegations make astonishing reading. For the first leg at Stamford Bridge, Mourinho arrived early enough to get in position. He watched the game on a television in the dressing-room and, during the first half, communicated to his staff in the dugout by radio or telephone. “You can get mobile reception in the dressing-room,” the source said. “It depends what network and in what room.”

At the time, television commentators spotted and commented on the fact that Rui Faria, the fitness coach, had a strange kink in his bobble hat and repeatedly scratched his ear. It was the sort of kink that could be caused by a wire and earpiece. “It was so obvious, to keep playing with your ear like that,” the source said.

Suspicious of skulduggery going on under their noses, Uefa officials went down to the tunnel, but by then the players were back in the dressing-room and listening to a team talk from their manager.

One source claims that knowing that the listening device had been rumbled, Chelsea simply used more rudimentary communication in the second half. It was noted at the time that Silvinho Louro, the goalkeeping coach, made several trips back to the dressing-room. “He’s a nervous spectator,” a source close to Mourinho joked at the time, but Louro kept coming back with bits of paper that were passed to the other coaches. Whatever the pieces of paper contained, they tended to coincide with substitutions.

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.

In the second leg, at the Olympic Stadium in Munich, there was a greater risk of detection if he tried to enter the dressing-room. The sources allege that Mourinho went into the stands to watch but, apparently flustered by the close attention of a camera crew, he quickly departed for the team hotel.

The privacy might have been useful. The Timeshas been told that a speaker had been set up in the dressing-room so that he could talk to the players over the telephone at half-time. “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.

In a recent biography to which Mourinho contributed, he boasted about how he overcame a touchline ban during his days at FC Porto by sending messages to his assistants from his seat in the stands via “a small, sophisticated telecommunications device”. He even listed the precise instructions, which included: “Tell Deco [the Porto midfield player] I’m p****d off, I want more!” and, “Pressure on linesman, everybody.”

Chelsea said in a statement last night: “The situation is very clear. Both matches were controlled by Uefa and they were more than satisfied on both nights that their ruling was intact, hence the statements that were issued by Uefa at the time and subsequently. The only reason to publish this so close to a big match is to serve an agenda that is intended to undermine our team.”

Banned aid

The first of a series of tumultuous Champions League meetings between Chelsea and Barcelona had ramifications that were felt for much of the rest of the season, leading to a touchline ban for José Mourinho and the premature retirement of Anders Frisk.

February 24, 2005

Chelsea complain to Uefa after their first knockout round, first-leg defeat by Barcelona the previous evening, alleging that Frank Rijkaard entered the dressing-room of Frisk, the referee, at half-time.

March 12

Frisk unexpectedly announces his retirement from football after receiving death threats.

March 14

Mourinho is branded “an enemy of football” by Volker Roth, head of Uefa’s referees committee.

March 21

Uefa dismisses Chelsea’s complaint as “false, wrong and unfounded” and charges Mourinho, Steve Clarke and Les Miles, the head of security, with bringing the game into disrepute.

March 31

Mourinho found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute and given a two-match touchline ban. Bruce Buck, the chairman, apologises for the club’s conduct.

April 5

Baltemar Brito, Mourinho’s assistant, says the manager will not attend the next day’s first leg against Bayern at Stamford Bridge but watch the match on television.

April 6

Rui Faria, the fitness coach, is seen fidgeting with a woolly hat and Silvinho Louro, the goalkeeping coach, repeatedly retreats down the tunnel during Chelsea’s 4-2 victory. Uefa declines to mount an investigation.

April 12

Mourinho takes his seat in the VIP section of the Olympic Stadium for the second leg, but after an altercation with a camera crew calls a taxi and watches Chelsea’s 3-2 defeat at the team hotel. Chelsea through to the last four.

Uefa Disciplinary Regulations, Article 70, Paragraph Two

A team manager/coach who is suspended from carrying out his function may follow the match for which he is suspended from the stands only. He is not allowed in the dressing-room, tunnel or technical area before and during the match, nor is he allowed to get in contact with his team.