FA officials dine too well to watch matches. Should be given bread and water - Mourinho

Jose Mourinho has poured scorn on the FA for branding Chelsea as being disrespectful of match officials – claiming their delegates are too busy drinking Champagne and eating lobster to watch matches.

Chelsea have been ranked as the worst in the Premier League for showing respect to referees in figures compiled by FA Fair Play delegates – but Mourinho insists the statistics are based on ‘lies’.

The delegates, usually ex-players and managers, also rate refereeing performances, and Mourinho is still fuming that delegate Steve Greaves decided Martin Atkinson was right not to send off Burnley’s Ashley Barnes in a February draw which saw Chelsea’s Nemanja Matic sent off for retaliation.

Speaking before the home game against Manchester United on Saturday, The Special One said: “No these figures don’t surprise me, because these delegates are the same delegates who do the evaluation of the referees’ performances, and that I read every week.

“It depends on the food and the drinks. We have to change the catering because many, many times they don’t see the games. Really. I think they stay eating and drinking.

 “The only one I met was the phenomenal guy who made the report on the Matic situation. And that one, for sure, had sushi, lobster - everything. Champagne of high quality. Cristal. Everything.

“We have the best catering and the best drink.

"We should give them bread and water.”

Chelsea have been criticised for harassing referees this season – especially when several players surrounded the referee before Zlatan Ibrahimovic was sent off in the Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain at Stamford Bridge last month.

And Mourinho, who has previously claimed his team are the victims of a ‘campaign’, said: “It’s not true (that Chelsea disrespect match officials). I know that [when] a lie [is] repeated and repeated, there is a risk for it to become true in people’s eyes. But I disagree. I think a lie is a lie. No problem.

“Are you are trying to tell me that the (Fair Play) table is going to reduce points in relation to the real table, and that somehow somebody is going to take 10 points off us! Instead of 73, we’d have 63. This is what you’re trying to tell me?”

And asked whether jealousy was involved, he replied: “Yes.”