Football Quotes of 2005

[AreliusIII]

"I am in the news every day. I think they really like my overcoat, they really like my haircut, they really like my face, they really like my behaviour, they really like to talk about me" -- Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho after he was charged by UEFA with bringing the game into disrepute following a Champions League row involving Barcelona.

"People like Mourinho are the enemy of football" -- chairman of UEFA's referees' committee Volker Roth after the Chelsea manager accused Barcelona boss Frank Rijkaard of trying to influence referee Anders Frisk during their Champions League match in February. The episode led to Frisk announcing his immediate retirement.

"We didn't have any good luck early on and then we got hit with bad luck" -- Bayern Munich coach Felix Magath after his team won 3-2 in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Chelsea but still went out 6-5 on aggregate.

"We lost it in six minutes of madness" -- AC Milan manager Carlo Ancelotti, whose side lost a 3-0 lead in May's Champions League final when Liverpool scored three goals in six minutes and went on to win on penalties.

"The threat of two-and-a-half years in prison will certainly make one or two people think before trying to influence a football match" -- German football association president Theo Zwanziger after referee Robert Hoyzer was jailed for fixing matches.

"Just because you're paid 120,000 pounds a week and do well for 20 minutes against Spurs, you think you are a superstar" -- Roy Keane criticises Rio Ferdinand and other players in an interview banned by Manchester United's television channel shortly before he left the club after 12 years.

"We thought we had hit the bottom but we saw today that the bottom is even lower" -- coach Stanislav Griga after his Sparta Prague side finished bottom of their Champions League Group B following a 0-0 draw with Switzerland's Thun.

"We were playing football in the garden and I took it past George Best. I stopped and screamed 'I beat George Best, I beat George Best'. Mind you, he was holding a pint of white wine at the time" -- broadcaster Danny Baker remembers playing football against his boyhood idol. Best died aged 59 November after years of heavy drinking.

[Jose Luis Luviano]

No list of 2005 quotes is complete without John Stossel, I mean Ricardo Lavolpe.

"I'm going on vacation after the US game"

"They're a small team. My aunt or grandmother could play for them."