In response to Sir Alex Ferguson’s criticism regarding media reports of José Mourinho’s forthcoming meeting with referees’ chief Keith Hackett, the Chelsea manager explained that he had been at a meeting of Premiership managers pre-season.
“I was officially invited for a meeting and every manager of the Premiership was also invited. For me, my life is football and family. I don’t play golf, I don’t have hobbies and, because of this, I went to the meeting.”
Amongst those Premiership managers sitting on his table were Adrian Boothroyd, Martin Jol, Harry Redknapp, Glenn Roeder and Chris Colman.
“Mr Hackett told us: ‘Please’, and he repeated, ‘Please, if during the season you are not happy and you want to give a contribution to the game and you think you can give some opinions, please call me or send me an email.’
“He gave a card to everybody and I brought the card home. After the game against Reading, I almost called him but I decided not to. After the game against Sheffield, I almost called him but I didn’t. After the game against Tottenham, I couldn’t do anything other than to call him.”
José said that Mr Hackett thanked him for his call and said they would have a chat at a future date. Mourinho also stressed that every manager present was invited to do the same. He also said that Sir Alex was not present at his meeting but he believed that there were two meetings, one in London and one up in the north. Whether Sir Alex had attended the other meeting, he was uncertain.