Jose Mourinho confirmed he DID sneak into Chelsea’s dressing room via a laundry basket, despite being banned from the stadium.
The former Manchester United boss made the revelation while speaking on beIN SPORTS during his first spell as Chelsea boss.
Back in 2005, Mourinho claimed Frank Rijkaard visited referee Anders Frisk at half-time of the Blues’ Champions League clash with Barcelona.
The Portuguese claimed Rijkaard influenced the referee’s decision to send off Didier Drogba.
Chelsea went on to win the second leg to set up a tie against Bayern Munich – although Mourinho picked up a two-match stadium ban for improper conduct.
Officially, it was claimed Mourinho watched the game from a nearby hotel. But for years, it was claimed the enigmatic manager was actually smuggled into the changing room.
Although the tale was never confirmed, Mourinho told Andy Gray and Richard Keys he did in fact sneak into the dressing room in the most ingenious
of ways.
Keys asked him point-blank if he was really in the laundry basket, and Mourinho unashamedly answered: “Yes, yes I was.
“The fundamental thing of it is: Chelsea v Bayern Munich, a big match in the Champions League. I need to be with my players. And I did it, yeah.”
While it seems as though getting in was easy, the tricky part was getting the manager back out of the room – without suffocating.
“I go to the dressing room during the day, so I was there,” he added. “I’m there since midday, and the game is seven o’clock, and I just want to be in the dressing room when the players arrive.
“So I go there, nobody sees me. The problem was to leave after.
“[Chelsea kit man] Stewart Bannister put me in the basket. The metal one, the hard one. Puts me in there. I go in there with a little bit open, so I could breathe.
“But when Stewart is taking that outside the dressing room, outside the stadium, the UEFA guys… were desperate to find me.
“So when I was there, Stewart closed the box. I couldn’t breathe. When he opened the box, I was dying.
“I’m serious. I was claustrophobic. It’s true, it’s true.”