Real Madrid coach José Mourinho expressed dissatisfaction with the FIFA Coach of the Year 2012 award, which was presented to Vicente Del Bosque, the coach of the Spanish national team. Mourinho, in an interview with the Portuguese channel RTP, accused the process of lacking transparency and suggested irregularities in the voting.
“There were irregularities. There is a lack of transparency. Many of the votes were not counted. One, two, or three people called me saying they had voted for me, but in the results list, their vote was given to someone else. This is the reason why I decided not to go there,” stated Mourinho, who received support from his former Inter player Goran Pandev. Pandev claimed that he voted for Mourinho as the captain of Macedonia, but there was confusion in the results.
“I voted for Mourinho. Strange things are happening. I called and said Mourinho, as captain of Macedonia, I vote Mourinho. I don’t know what happened,” added Pandev.
In response to the controversy, FIFA released a statement confirming the accuracy of the published list of votes: “FIFA confirms that the list of votes published on its official website is accurate.” The issue raised questions about the transparency and integrity of the voting process for FIFA awards
