Barca legal team to study Mourinho rant

Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho’s inflammatory post-match accusations could be subjected to action by Barcelona.

Mourinho was left enraged following Pepe’s sending off in the 61st minute in Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final first leg, which also led to his dismissal to the stands and an ensuing 2-0 defeat to Barcelona at the Bernabeu.

Reigning Spanish champions Barcelona take a healthy advantage heading into the return fixture against their arch rivals at Camp Nou next Tuesday.

And the Catalan club is now deliberating whether it can refer Mourinho’s stinging post-match statement, in which he declared Barcelona constantly received favourable refereeing decisions to the UEFA Disciplinary Commission.

A statement on the club’s official site read: “Barca’s legal department will study the declarations made by Jose Mourinho following his team’s 0-2 defeat at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night to determine whether to refer them to UEFA.”

Mourinho claimed Barcelona were being afforded preferential treatment by match officials in his press conference after the loss, drawing parallels with his experiences as then-manager of Chelsea in the 2008/09 Champions League season.

“But I just do not understand why Barcelona always receives the help of the referee. All my life I will be asking myself this question, and one day I hope to receive an answer,” Mourinho said.

“I don’t understand why Barcelona have this power. It happened two years ago to Chelsea, almost to my Inter last year, and also to Arsenal this year.”

“Why do the opponents of Barcelona always have a man sent off? Where does this power come from? Maybe it is to give more publicity to UNICEF, maybe because of the power of (Spanish federation president Jose Angel) Villar in UEFA.”

Opposite Pep Guardiola refused to be drawn into a war of words and instead focused on his side’s winning performance.