Following the Portuguese fourth official’s dismissal in Tuesday’s 2-1 Serie A loss for Roma at Cremonese, Jose Mourinho has threatened legal action against Marco Serra.
As Daniel Ciofani scored the game-winning penalty in the 83rd minute, Mourinho’s team missed the opportunity to climb up to second place in the league standings and returned home empty-handed.
The Roma manager was fired by referee Marco Piccinini just after halftime, his team trailing 1-0, after an altercation with Serra on the sidelines—not for the first time this season.
“I am emotional, but not crazy,” Mourinho told DAZN. “In order to react the way I did, something had to happen first. I need to understand if I can take any legal action.
“Piccinini gave me a red card, because unfortunately the fourth official does not have the capacity to understand what he said to me.
“I want to find out if there is an audio recording. I don’t want to get into the fact that Serra is from Turin and on Sunday we are playing against Juventus.
“For the first time in my career, a fourth official spoke to me in the most incredible way. It was unjustifiable.
“At the end of the game, I went to speak to them. Piccinini, who was the fourth official in the last game when I was sent off, told me to apologise to Serra.
“I told Serra he should have the courage to explain what happened, but he had memory problems.”
Mourinho lamented his side’s display with the race for the top four wide open ahead of the Giallorossi’s clash with Juventus on Sunday.
“We were a little unlucky, conceding two goals on their one and a half chances,” he said. “The responsibility is ours. We lacked intensity, should’ve killed off the game straight away.
“I am taking it one game at a time. I cannot leave this game behind now, I cannot even think about Sunday. There is frustration, which obliges me to analyse. It is a pity this thing happened with Serra: I respect someone as much as they respect me.”
💬 “We paid too high a price.”
— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) February 28, 2023
🗣️ José Mourinho after our defeat to Cremonese.
👉 https://t.co/F6XVZlhyd6#ASRoma #CremoneseRoma pic.twitter.com/b5ZAigAjnM