Jose Mourinho was in defiant mood, insisting he will not “run away from a fight” when he faces Uefa charges at Thursday’s disciplinary hearing.
Mourinho, his joint assistant Steve Clarke and the security officer Les Miles all face disrepute charges.
Uefa officials claimed Mourinho had created a “poisoned ambience” by “using lies as a pre-match tactic” and that the Portuguese coach was also described as “the enemy of football”.
Mourinho admitted for the first time yesterday by hinting that he had not seen the incident himself and that he had made his stand against Frisk and Rijkaard on behalf of his staff.
“I am a man of beliefs,” said Mourinho.
“If I believe I have the truth in my hands I don’t run away from a fight. I don’t have to change my personality or my principles.
“I am the manager and I have people who assist me. If something happened in the football stadium and I don’t see it and if some of my people arrive and say to me ‘I saw this, this happened’ and if another one comes and says ‘I saw the same’ then I say it is true.”
“Of course I am not a perfect man, no chance,” added Mourinho.
“Of course I have a lot of bad qualities, but the people who work with me know I am loyal too. Because I am loyal to my people I am involved in something I don’t want to be involved in [the Nyon hearing] but I won’t run away from it.”
Mourinho was speaking at a coaches’ conference in Jerusalem, where he is attending a youth football tournament involving Palestinian and Israeli teams.
The former Porto coachalso revealed that he he could envisage himself staying in English football for another decade.
“I want to keep working for 13 years and for the next nine or 11 years I see myself in English football,” he said.
“For the last two or four years I would like to work as Portugal manager. For four years to do a European Championship and a World Cup, or for two years to do just a World Cup. If they want [that] then that’s compulsory to my career.”
“The England job, it’s not for me,” he said. “First of all it’s in good hands. Secondly when Sven [-Goran Eriksson] decides to go – or when the [Football Association] decides it’s time for Sven to go – I believe it’s a job for an Englishman.”
