Ruben Amorim’s press conference ahead of this week’s Champions League fixtures generated unexpected headlines thanks to an excruciating exchange with Sky Sports reporter Gary Cotterill.
Manchester United welcome Amorim as their new manager next week but he is, for now, still in charge of Portugal’s league leaders, Sporting CP.
They face Manchester City in the Champions League this evening and Cotterill was in attendance as Amorim addressed his press conference in Portuguese.
Why didn’t Amorim answer questions in English?
Cotterill asked Amorim to answer a question in English and was repeatedly rebuffed when he tried to force the issue.
“It’s like a cold shoulder to all your English fans,” accused the reporter as the press conference finally moved on without him.
Cotterill might have had more luck if he’d been in Lisbon representing TNT Sports or BBC Sport.
There is a degree of obligation for Champions League managers to answer questions in English as part of the agreement between UEFA and the rights holders for its competitions in markets around the world but Sky Sports is not a Champions League broadcaster in the United Kingdom.
The new Manchester United boss and the Sporting press officer were steadfast in their refusal to bow to Cotterill’s provocation. He is the Portuguese manager of a Portuguese team and the expectation of almost everybody in the room was that Portuguese should be the order of the day.
So hungry was Cotterill to ask his incisive question about a future United manager possibly beating City that he failed to grasp the press officer’s clear argument – in English – that Amorim’s wonderful English will be back on the menu when he’s in England.
VIDEO Why Man United HAD To Sack Erik Ten Hag
“Sorry,” said Amorim. “They will miss me in Portuguese so I have to speak Portuguese.”
“They’ve had about 25 minutes in Portuguese. We want ten seconds in English,” came the astonishing response, ‘we’ doing some particularly heavy lifting in a room that must have been growing increasingly tired of the interjection.
The reaction on social media has been something of a cold shoulder to Cotterill. Football fans can be an unforgiving bunch and have an especially keen radar when it comes to reporters inadvertently making themselves the story.
Sporting CP, not Manchester United, take on Manchester City in Champions League action on Tuesday evening.
