‘Mourinho influences referees’

Former Premier League referee Graham Poll has lifted the lid on tactics Jose Mourinho has previously employed to influence match officials.

The Real Madrid Coach spent three years in England as Chelsea manager, during which time Poll was still working as a referee in the English top flight.

In his guise as a columnist for the Daily Mail, Poll has this week revealed the approach the Portuguese tactician took with him.

Mourinho took a charm offensive, inviting him to Chelsea’s training ground to introduce himself and had the referees’ changing room at Stamford Bridge renovated, with a flat-screen TV installed, all off the back of a flippant remark made by Poll that it could with ‘a lick of paint’.

Poll also revealed that after Chelsea’s FA Cup semi-final defeat to Liverpool, which he officiated, Mourinho was upset with him and commented: “I thought you were my friend.”

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