Jose Mourinho has claimed he could pursue legal action after being sent off for a third time this season in Roma’s shock 2-1 defeat to Cremonese.
Mourinho was sent off in the opening moments of the second half following a clash with the fourth official.
The Roma manager was sent off for dissent by referee Marco Piccinini and then proceeded to continue to point at the fourth official and insist ‘It’s him, it’s him’ in protest.
Mourinho claimed after the match that fourth official Marco Serra had spoken to him ‘the most incredible way’.
‘I need to understand if I can take any legal action,’ Piccinini gave me a red card because unfortunately, the fourth official does not have the capacity to understand what he said to me.
Mourinho then hinted at a Juventus backed conspiracy by referencing the official’s origins
‘I want to find out if there is an audio recording. I don’t want to get into the fact that Serra is from Turin and on Sunday we are playing against Juventus. For the first time in my career, a fourth official spoke to me in the most incredible way. It was unjustifiable. At the end of the game, I went to speak to them.’
An investigation has been opened into the incident by the Italian Football Federation, according to Gazzetta dello Sport.
Both Mourinho and Serra will be contacted for their version of the events surrounding the red card.
Mourinho’s team were already 1-0 down when he received his marching orders after Frank Tsadjout had opened the scoring for relegation-threatened Cremonese.
A win for Roma would have put them back into the Champions League spots, but they remain a point outside the top four, behind city rivals Lazio. Mourinho will now be absent for Sunday’s crunch game against Juventus.
Meanwhile, Cremonese are hoping their first win of the season can kick-start their bid for survival.