Former Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho has reiterated his belief that the FIFA World Coach of the Year 2012 award was corrupt.
The Portuguese guided Los Blancos to the La Liga title that year – his only league title success in Spain despite being the self-styled ‘special one’. But his missed out on the coach of the year award to Spain boss Vicente del Bosque, who guided La Roja to their second successive European Championship that summer.
Mourinho has made comments in the past that he believes the vote was rigged by FIFA and speaking to the Sunday Times, once again said he holds firm in that opinion.
FIFA has been rocked in the past couple of weeks after high profile arrests of senior member in the organisation on corruption and money laundering charges. Since the arrests many stories have emerged that have painted a picture of a deeply corrupt organisation.
Mourinho said: “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?”
