Inter's Mourinho blasts rivals after penalty row

Inter coach Jose Mourinho courted controversy again yesterday when he returned fire on his Serie A rivals in a row over a contested penalty in Sunday's 3-3 draw with Roma.

Polemics have been flying since Mario Balotelli, who scored twice, helped leaders Inter come back from 3-1 down by converting a penalty after going down in the area.

Roma coach Luciano Spalletti and midfielder Daniele De Rossi said after the match that Balotelli had dived and Juventus boss Claudio Ranieri, whose team trail Inter by seven points in second place, sided with them on a television show.

"I don't like intellectual prostitution. I like intellectual honesty," Mourinho said. "There has been great intellectual manipulation over the last few days. A great job has been done to manipulate public opinion.

"Over the last two days we have not talked about a Roma side with great players, lots of players I wanted to have with me, that will finish the season with zero titles.

"We have not talked about Milan, who will finish the season with zero titles. We have not talked about Juventus, who have won lots of points with refereeing mistakes.

"You cannot say it was not a penalty, you can say there is a doubt," said Mourinho.

Mourinho's comments sparked a swift response from Juventus.

"Juventus expresses shock and indignation and asks Inter to disassociate itself publicly from these comments," the Turin club said.

"With his statements Inter's coach lacked respect not only to Juventus and its 14 million fans, but (also) to the whole of Italian soccer."