UEFA fear more refs will quit

UEFA chief Volker Roth stoked up the row with Jose Mourinho today after he claimed the game was facing a refereeing recruitment crisis because of abuse from managers.

As Chelsea's players rallied behind Mourinho following last night's 1-0 Premiership victory over West Brom, which put them 11 points clear at the top of the table, Roth renewed his attack on the Blues head coach.

UEFA's referees chief said young officials were turning their backs on the game because of the sort of pressure which forced Swedish official Anders Frisk to quit at the weekend.

Roth told Standard Sport: "The problem is that at grass-roots level fewer people want to become referees because they are only going to be discriminated-against. Who is going to do that if you are going to get abused?

"Every year in Germany we train 10,000 referees but another 11,000 walk away from the game because they have lost the will to do it anymore. It is difficult to get new referees when reporters, TV and coaches are constantly laying into them. Young people say: 'I'm not going to do that.'"

Mourinho has threatened to sue Roth for branding him and "enemy of football" and blaming him for inciting the death threats which forced Frisk to quit following Chelsea's controversial Champions League first leg match with Barcelona.