Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho revealed that their team bus failed to be escorted by police which made them arrive late for the Valencia encounter due to the heavy traffic.
The game was delayed by close to five minutes which has led to Manchester United being slapped with a fine by European football governing body UEFA. The traffic meant that Manchester United spent more than an hour to get to the stadium from the hotel where they had camped a night before the game.
Mourinho blamed the police for their lateness to the game, “We left the hotel at six o’clock, hoping that 30 minutes would be enough. Which normally is but this time the police refused to do an escort so we come by ourselves. And we took from the Lowry Hotel, 75 minutes. We anticipate everything that it could be dangerous, in the sense of arriving late but we were informed the police refused an escort.”
Police have said that they were not to blame for Manchester United’s late arrival for their Champions League match against Valencia following criticism from manager Jose Mourinho.
The United team arrived late at Old Trafford, forcing kick-off to be delayed by five minutes to 8:05 pm (1905 GMT). Mourinho said United were refused an escort by Greater Manchester Police (GMP), which led to their journey from their hotel taking 45 minutes longer than usual.
Police said they are no longer obliged to provide that service for every match and that the club were aware of the change in policy.
“All police deployments are carried out following a comprehensive risk-assessment process and specifically in respect of escort team buses, are only ever undertaken on occasions when there is intelligence or information to suggest a risk of threat or harm to the players,” said a police statement.
“GMP has previously used police vehicles to accompany a team’s coach but after a review of our core policing responsibilities it was decided that we would no longer provide this service at every fixture.”
The match saw United extend their winless run to four games with a stuttering goalless draw that keeps the pressure on Mourinh