Mourinho is a basket case

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho hid in a LAUNDRY BASKET — to dodge UEFA watchdogs who barred him from his team’s dressing room.

Mourinho, 44 — hit with the ban for criticising a Champions League ref — was smuggled out in the hamper after giving a team talk.

The crafty coach had sneaked into the Stamford Bridge dressing room four hours before kick-off, club sources revealed yesterday.

He watched the game in 2005 on a TV in the dressing room and relayed instructions to players via Chelsea fitness coach Rui Faria, who wore a radio earpiece on the touchline.

Faria raised suspicion by constantly scratching his ear under his woolly hat during the game — but stopped when pressmen alerted UEFA officials.

Later, Chelsea goalkeeping coach Silvinho Lauro made a series of mysterious dashes to the dressing room, returning with scraps of paper suspected to contain notes from Mourinho.

Chelsea won the Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich 4-2 — with Mourinho making a clean getaway ten minutes before full time.

UEFA officials had no idea he was in the basket as he was wheeled away buried under players’ kit.

He then found another way to beat the two-game ban on having contact with his players.

At the return leg in Munich he gave his talk via a speaker smuggled into the dressing room. He was speaking from the nearby team hotel.

Sources said Mourinho — whose team face Liverpool in tonight’s Champions League semi-final — later joked about his antics.

Last night UEFA said there was no proof — and it would take no action.

Chelsea insisted: “Both matches were controlled by UEFA and they were more than satisfied on both nights that their ruling was intact.”