The Chelsea manager, José Mourinho, has repeated his belief that he may have been the victim of corruption when he finished second to Vicente del Bosque for the Fifa World Coach of the Year award in 2012.
The Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, announced his resignation last week in the midst of a host of officials from football’s world governing body being arrested and the former executive committee member Chuck Blazer’s admission that he took bribes over the awarding of the 1998 and 2010 World Cups.
The South African Football Association has since denied Blazer’s claims that it issued bribes to win the vote to host the 2010 event but, after his experience in finishing second in the poll voted for by national coaches, captains and journalists, Mourinho does not appear to be surprised by any claims about Fifa.
Echoing comments he made in 2013 about losing out to the Spain coach when in charge at Real Madrid, Mourinho told the Sunday Times: “In 2012, I was one of the three finalists and when I was told I was finishing second with a few votes behind the first, it looked normal to me.
“But then the votes were made public. And my former player, a national team captain, called me, ‘Mister, there is something wrong because obviously, obviously, I gave you the vote, then in the list they put another coach’s name and that was not me’.
“A few minutes later my Portuguese friend, a national team coach, called me, ‘Mister, don’t believe what you see in the list because obviously I vote for you’. And a few minutes later I got a message from another national coach, ‘they changed my vote’.
“Who changed the vote? His federation? Fifa? Who?
“It is not a drama. A drama is other things but at that time I said, ‘from this moment I don’t go back’ because obviously something happened.”
