Mourinho admits: I lived through the most important stages of the Negreira case, and I face bad luck with refereeing
I was a victim of public opinion in the Vinicius and Brestiani crisis
José Mourinho has opened up on his relationship with referees, speaking out in the wake of the derby crisis that ended in a 2-1 defeat for his Real Madrid side.
The remarks came in an interview with Corriere dello Sport, republished by AS. "My relationship with referees? I don't think the problem lies with me personally. The problem is the bad luck I face when I arrive at a certain club," the Portuguese said.
He continued: "I lived through the important phase of the Negreira case here at Real Madrid. Nobody knew about it, but we lived through it. It happened."
"I left afterwards, and now everyone knows about it. But I was thinking about something else, in Turkey, after a big Turkish scandal, this kind of situation used to happen to me a lot," he stressed.
Recalling the details of his return to Real Madrid, Mourinho said: "Usually, contact happens first, then the fuss begins when there is already something in place. But here, exactly the opposite happened. The fuss began when there was no contact at all. I was at Benfica, happy. It's a special club for me, and it's 10 minutes from my home, something that hadn't happened in 20 years."
"The club needed a radical change. I thought I would stay there under my three-year contract. Then the fuss began. I was surprised by it, and I didn't give it any importance. I told myself: just a rumour," he noted.
His account went on: "Real Madrid had changed their coach midway through the season, then Arbeloa came. The results weren't known yet, and the fuss began. But nobody told me anything. When the rumours started, I told myself that this couldn't be true. I never thought the matter could be real."
On the Prestianni and Vinícius incident, he commented: "It was a very sensitive and difficult point for us, because Prestianni was in the end suspended, and not because of racism. I was a victim of public opinion, and primarily of many opportunists, because of a situation that was completely out of control."
He added: "You have a player who says this isn't true. And no one has proof that it is true. You can't take a position. And whatever you say, public opinion will remain in the wrong. What I really like at the end of this story is that, on one hand, there was a wonderful young man, and on the other hand, there was an exemplary young man."
