SOCCER: It was left to referees to voice their anger yesterday at Jose Mourinho's criticism of Neale Barry after the English Football Association chose not to censure his post-match comments on Wednesday night.

The Chelsea manager had implied his Manchester United counterpart Alex Ferguson had "made (Barry) tremble" in the 0-0 League Cup semi-final, but such was the phrasing of the outburst the FA has deemed there to be insufficient evidence to charge the Portuguese with bringing the game into disrepute.

The comments by Mourinho appeared to imply Ferguson had attempted to coerce Barry at half-time into treating his players more favourably in the second half. But the Scunthorpe referee was moved to respond: "As regards conversations with managers in the tunnel at half-time and full-time, I've had hundreds of these while I've been refereeing. This one was no different."

Barry was sanguine about Mourinho's words, with Manchester United also declining to comment yesterday, but Keith Hackett, the head of the referees' organisation, Professional Game Match Officials Ltd, expressed his discontent at the FA's inaction.

Hackett said Barry was right to ignore "a light-hearted quip" from Ferguson - "two sides, ref" were the words the United manager used - but took a different view of Mourinho's outburst. "I've put lines of communication in place for managers and I'm disappointed these weren't used," said the referees' manager. "This sort of comment has been heard and let go by us in the past, but I have justification in replying.

"Of 19 free-kicks in the second half, 10 went to Chelsea. Is that evidence of a referee being biased? I beg to differ. Having analysed the match, I'm satisfied with Neale's performance."

Ironically, the strength of Hackett's reply helped persuade Soho Square's compliance unit that it had no need to react, even though Mourinho appeared to be guilty of breaching the FA's criteria for questioning a referee's impartiality.

"Managers have three avenues for airing their grievances. They can visit the referee 30 minutes after a game, and I advise all our officials to keep an open door," Hackett added. "They can speak to the match delegate, who notes the views of both managers, or they can go through the League Managers' Association. We've moved on from throwing stones to open discussion and I work closely with the LMA's chief executive John Barnwell. Managers' comments do affect referees and sometimes they can learn from them."

Chelsea will consider the implications of Adrian Mutu reportedly becoming a Juventus player after the completion of the wrongful dismissal case brought by the Romania international, which is due to be concluded in the coming weeks.

There has been no official confirmation the striker - who is serving a seven-month ban from football after testing positive for cocaine use - has signed for the Serie A leaders on a five-year deal, and Chelsea continue to hold his registration until after the wrongful dismissal case.

However, Chelsea's anger at having to write off a £13.7 million asset has not cooled and the Premiership leaders continue to reserve their right to take whatever future action they deem necessary.