Mourinho demands assistance to tackle refs

Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos (left) vies with Sevilla's Brazilian forward Luis Fabiano during their Spanish league match on Saturday at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid. Real Madrid won 1-0.

MADRID - Jose Mourinho wants Real Madrid to help him tackle referees after his side scraped a 1-0 win at home to Sevilla on Sunday, despite having had defender Ricardo Carvalho harshly sent off early in the second half.

"There were 13 serious mistakes by the referee," Mourinho told the post-match news conference at the Bernabeu while waving a piece of paper with the incidents typed on them.

"I don't feel under pressure when I am doing what I like doing, and I like to coach. I am tired of this. My team needs to be defended. If I say what I think, I will be on the front pages tomorrow and I will be suspended.

"There is a club and a structure and I want them to defend my team from there."

Mourinho indicated someone had prepared the list for him and he needed others from within the club to take up the issue so he did not pick up a punishment.

He also said he wanted to have a private meeting with president Florentino Perez.

"I have a good personal relationship with the club, even though we think differently," he said

The Portuguese has already served a two-match ban for being sent off in the King's Cup after showing contempt to a referee, and picked up another ban in the Champions League.

He was fined and suspended after allegations he had engineered deliberate red cards for two of his players in their Champions League match at Ajax last month.

Carvalho picked up a second yellow card against Sevilla after 63 minutes when he clashed heads with Alvaro Negredo as they jumped for a high ball.

Despite being a man down, Angel Di Maria grabbed a late winner in a scrappy match, which ensured Real remained two points behind leader Barcelona going into the winter break.

"The game was forgettable," Mourinho said. "It was too ugly. I wouldn't have paid anything to watch it. At home, I would have put on Eurosport to watch one in Vietnam."

（Reuters）