Jose Mourinho faces a
UEFA investigation after Real Madrid were accused of having two
players deliberately sent off at Ajax.
Both Xabi Alonso and Sergio
Ramos were dismissed in the dying stages for time-wasting - despite
Real comfortably leading 4-0 in Holland.
Both players were shown second
yellows, meaning they will miss the meaningless final game against
Auxerre next month. They are now guaranteed to be available for the
start of the crunch knockout stages.
UEFA, European football's
governing body, confirmed they will now probe the incidents in
Tuesday's Champions League clash at the Amsterdam Arena.
UEFA said its disciplinary
unit will look at the incidents after receiving Thomson's official
report. Under article 5.1 of UEFA's regulations dealing with
loyalty, integrity and sportsmanship both players could be charged
and have their suspensions extended.
Mourinho attempted to thrust
the standard of Scottish refereeing in the spotlight again by
trying to justify the sending offs.
The former Chelsea boss claimed he was puzzled by official Craig
Thomson's decision to show Alonso and Ramos their second yellow
cards for time-wasting.
But Dutch TV coverage showed
Mourinho speaking to Alonso moments before his dismissal. And
Spanish newspaper Marca published pictures of Mourinho passing a
spoken message to Ramos via goalkeepers Jerzy Dudek and Iker
Casillas.
Casillas claimed: 'Dudek was
asking me about my stomach problems. I told Ramos to keep an eye on
one of their strikers, who was a constant threat inside the
area.'
Ramos insisted Real had not
hatched a plan to ensure both players would be dismissed despite
shaking the referee's hand after being sent off. He was dismissed
for having taken an age to take a goalkick after spending several
seconds adjusting his socks.
'We didn't go looking
for the cards,' Ramos said. 'Seeing what the score was, the referee
could have saved them. But he sent me off and that's
that.'
Paisley-born Thomson's
decision to give Ramos and Alonso their marching orders put the
performances of Scottish referees in the headlines
again.
Referees in
Scotland are currently on strike at the amount of
recent public criticism and pressure they have received for their
officiating in the Scottish Premier League.
The Scottish Football
Association are still attempting to avoid the referees' planned
walkout for this weekend by meeting with the officials on
Wednesday.
Mourinho, meanwhile, when
asked about the red cards of Alonso and Ramos, claimed Thomson had
made some 'strange' decisions and claimed it was an 'easy game to
control' for the Scot.
The Real manager said: 'I
spoke with many players throughout the game, not only with Ramos
and Alonso.
'Stories sell, but the
important thing is the 4-0 win and the fantastic game we had. Let’s
talk about that and not other things.
'The sendings-off came after
an easy game where the referee has shown some strange
yellows.
'They are cards that I don’t
like. It was an easy game to control. Ajax made a lot of fouls and in the first from
Ramos he was shown a yellow card.'
The Portuguese coach admitted
it did not matter that Alonso and Ramos would miss their final
meaningless group game at home to Auxerre but insisted he still
wanted to beat the French side when they meet at the Bernabeu in
December.
He added: 'The red cards we
picked up don’t matter hugely as we have already qualified ahead of
the next game against Auxerre. If Ramos and Alonso can’t play
against Auxerre then there will be others, but we are not going to
gift the game to the French. We want to win them all.'
