Jose Mourinho’s iconic 2005 story of hiding from UEFA in laundry basket

Jose Mourinho is good at a lot of things but strictly adhering to authority is not one of them.

The charismatic Portuguese has always been quick to stick his nose up at the powers-that-be and has, unsurprisingly, landed in hot water on many an occasion.

Be it criticising referees or pushing the boundaries of suspensions handed to him, Mourinho dances with controversy on a regular basis.

However, one of the greatest tales of Mourinho sticking the proverbial middle finger to those sat in the halls of power came in 2005 when he was slapped with a two-match ban for comments made about Frank Rijkaard influencing a game.

That ban meant that, after Chelsea superbly knock Barcelona out of the Champions League, Mourinho could not be present for the first leg of their titanic clash with Bayern Munich.

Mourinho wasn’t about to let that stop him giving a team-talk ahead of what would be the biggest game of his Chelsea career so far, hatching an audacious plan to sneak past the authorities.

Speaking to beIN Sports, Mourinho broke down, step by step, the Ocean’s 11-esque caper.

You can see Mourinho, who clearly enjoys retelling the story, bearing all in the clip below:

The Jose mourinho 'Laundry basket' story pic.twitter.com/cwJY35IGCk

“I go to the dressing room during the day so I was there from midday and the game is seven o’clock. I just want to be in the dressing room when the players arrive,”

“I went there and nobody saw me. The problem was to leave after. And Stewart Bannister the kit man put me in the basket. It was a little bit open so I could breathe.

“But when he is taking it outside the dressing room, the UEFA guys were following and desperate to find me so he closed the box and I couldn’t breathe! When he opened the box I