Milan boss Ancelotti blasts Mourinho for lack of respect

AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti turned up the title heat on Inter Milan rival Jose Mourinho by accusing him of a lack of respect.

Mourinho was sent to the stands by referee Domenico Celi after the Portuguese boss charged out of his dug-out to protest a decision during Sunday’s 1-0 win over Sampdoria.

He later accused Celi of lacking experience and being afraid of giving a decision to Inter but Ancelotti hit out at the former Chelsea man.

“I don’t believe Celi was afraid. And I believe Mourinho has lacked respect in his manner of confronting the referee and I believe the decision to send him off was justified,” he said.

“If referees are under pressure then we (the coaches) have to help reduce it. I myself have also been guilty, from the bench we’re not helping referees.

“Refereeing has changed completely, there are good matches but too many mistakes are being made.

“Offside is a real problem but the linesmen are top drawer. The human eye can’t see an offside by a few centimetres.

“Objectively I don’t believe there’s any favouritism in matches between big teams. I see refereeing mistakes but favouritism between the big and the small teams?”

Mourinho though says he is certain his team are being victimised.

“The referee? I prefer not to talk about him because if you do so then you have to talk about what happened (on Saturday) and in the other stadiums,” he said.

“He (Celi) was always blowing up against us and in that moment (when he was dismissed) I simply asked him if he was afraid of giving a decision in our favour.

“I think the referee was under pressure, under the watchful eye of the best referee in the history of football (Pierluigi Collina, a refereeing consultant in Italy) and after all that has happened these last two days.”

Mourinho was also incredulous at the amount of added time the referee played at the end of the game: six minutes.

“Six minutes of injury time. The only possible reason for that is that we were winning. If Sampdoria had equalised there would have been only one or two minutes.

“Hence the result happened despite the work of the referee although for sure it was difficult for him.

“My team beat Roma with a goal that was 10 centimetres offside and it became a national scandal.

“Then (on Saturday) Fiorentina weren’t given a penalty (for a trip by Olof Mellberg on Stevan Jovetic) and (on Sunday Philippe) Mexes’s goal (for Roma) was 20 centimetres offside.”

Mourinho may have felt his side were hard done by but that is nothing new for a coach working in Italy.

Sampdoria’s Walter Mazzarri claimed his side too had not been given a fair ride.

He said match-winner Adriano should have been sent off before scoring for aiming a punch into Daniele Gastaldello’s midriff while he felt his team should have had a penalty for an Ivan Cordoba foul on Giampaolo Pazzini.

In both cases he had a point but in Italy referee bashing and cries of foul-play — two-a-penny during the weekend programme — are not about to become a thing of the past.