I've nothing to hide, says Chelsea's mystery man in hat

There are few managers who bear a grudge quite like Jose Mourinho but, as he faces the second match of his touchline ban tonight, his old foes at Uefa are beginning to find out what an implacable enemy the Chelsea coach can prove. With his team on the brink of a Champions' League semi-final he continued his feud with the European game's governing body yesterday by refusing to utter a word on the match against Bayern Munich.

There are few managers who bear a grudge quite like Jose Mourinho but, as he faces the second match of his touchline ban tonight, his old foes at Uefa are beginning to find out what an implacable enemy the Chelsea coach can prove. With his team on the brink of a Champions' League semi-final he continued his feud with the European game's governing body yesterday by refusing to utter a word on the match against Bayern Munich.

In his place at Uefa's top table in Munich was the club's unknown assistant manager Rui Faria, who will be recognisable to most as the man in the hat who spent much of the first leg of this quarter-final tie against Bayern passing notes to other members of the bench. The fitness expert, 29, from Portugal, has been cleared of communicating with the banned Mourinho during that match but his presence was a move designed to infuriate Uefa.

It has been a long, tiresome feud between Uefa and Mourinho that began with the allegations about the referee Anders Frisk at the Nou Camp and came to a head two weeks ago with the ban and fine for the Chelsea coach. As the press conference at Bayern's Olympiastadion descended into chaos yesterday, and Uefa officials exchanged horrified looks, it was hard not to think that this grudge match will run long after the end of Mourinho's touchline ban.

In the midst of it all Faria, also formerly at Porto, will have caused Mourinho to take great pride at a performance which revealed him to be equally truculent, bullish and unwilling to compromise as his mentor. He denied once again that the hat he wore last week concealed a device to communicate with Mourinho and promised that not only would he be wearing it again but he would also be instigating the suspicious note-passing that went on among the Chelsea staff at Stamford Bridge.

Evidently well-briefed by his boss, the man who shares the nickname "Mini-Mourinho" with Andre Villas Boas, another Mourinho acolyte on the Chelsea staff, went on to attack Bayern and the dubious penalty won in the last minute by Michael Ballack.

"Yes , I will be using my hat again tomorrow," Faria said. "I don't have anything to hide. I did not have anything under my hat last week and people worry about too many silly things. They should be more worried about why there were two balls on the pitch last week and nobody stopped the game and the dive for the penalty.

"I am not trying to speak against the referee because he can make mistakes."

Of himself, Faria offered a clarification of sorts of his role at Stamford Bridge.

"I am not a normal fitness coach," he said. "The way we work and prepare during the week can give confidence to everybody. We discuss all the decisions. There are things we need to look for during the match. You will see the same thing on the bench again tomorrow.

"I don't pass on notes about physical things but specific things about our opponents - situations that may arise from set plays or observations about the way we are playing.

"We have to have an opinion because Jose asks for it many times. He likes to listen to the opinions of others. If you don't have an opinion, you are not doing anything."

Faria was quick to stamp on questions concerning why he did not appear to pass any notes to either Brito or Clarke during their Premiership game against Birmingham on Saturday. He was also asked about why he was not wearing his controversial woolly hat during the game but Faria had all his answers in place.

"Did you see the whole game on Saturday?" he replied. "I wore my hat at the start of the game but then took it off as it was too warm. It is easy to understand why I never passed on messages on Saturday. It was because, with Jose on the bench, you don't need to be so worried."

Faria concluded with an attack on Uefa, saying, "I am still upset with Uefa. Upset for Mourinho, the team, the fans, the club, for everybody."

The refusal of the Chelsea manager to attend yesterday's press conference will not trouble the support from west London that will descend on Germany today praying that their 4-2 victory in the first leg will be enough to see them to the semi-finals, but as a gesture to Uefa it was significant. Afterwards an official admitted the stand-off was tense. "What they did was not appropriate," the official said.

Bayern Munich (probable, 4-1-3-2): Kahn; Sagnol, Lucio, Kovac, Lizarazu; Demichelis; Salihamidzic, Ballack, Ze Roberto; Makaay, Pizarro.

Chelsea (probable, 4-1-4-1): Cech; Johnson, Carvalho, Terry, Gallas; Makelele; Cole, Lampard, Gudjohnsen, Duff; Drogba.

Referee: M Mejuto Gonzalez (Spain).