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UEFA and Mourinho kiss and make up after Barcelona spat [Fri Sep 2nd, 2005]
Nyon, Switzerland (Reuters) - Jose Mourinho has had his wish for a "clean sheet" at UEFA granted -- with European football's governing body stating it no longer had a problem with the Chelsea manager.
"I was quite surprised to hear that he wanted the slate cleaned, because as far as we were concerned everything had already been sorted out," UEFA spokesman William Gaillard said at the end of an elite coaches' forum held at the organisation's Swiss headquarters.
Mourinho, who attended the two-day forum but left before the closing press conference, was given a two-match ban by UEFA last season after making unsubstantiated claims about Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard and Swedish referee Anders Frisk.
The Chelsea manager had accused Rijkaard of visiting Frisk in the referee's dressing room during the half-time interval of Chelsea's 2-1 UEFA Champions League defeat in Barcelona.
"We have a tradition in football that applies to managers just as much as it does to players," Gaillard said. "If you are sanctioned, you serve your suspension, pay your fine or whatever and then you start again with a completely clean sheet."
Gaillard also scotched rumours that UEFA had been disgruntled by the absence of Mourinho and award-winning players Petr Cech and John Terry at last week's UEFA Champions League launch in Monaco.
"Chelsea told us that they were playing the next day and of course we understood that," Gaillard said. "Every year we have some players who can't make it, so it really wasn't a problem."
Although not specifically mentioning the row involving Mourinho and Frisk, the annual coaches' forum concluded with a call for better communication between players, managers and referees.
The coaches -- including Liverpool's Rafael Benitez, Manchester United's Alex Ferguson, Real Madrid's Vanderlei Luxemburgo and Juventus's Fabio Capello -- also called on UEFA to allow nine players on the substitutes' bench for Champions League matches, rather than the current seven.
Concerns were again expressed over the demands of the international calendar with the coaches asking UEFA to consider bringing midweek international games forward by one day to give players more time to recover.
The forum also announced plans to set up an international "coaches' circle", bringing together trainers from international, club, youth and women's football, with Ferguson as its first honorary head.
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