Jose Mourinho caused a stir with his comments after Vinicius Jr accused Gianluca Prestianni of racially abusing him during the Champions League clash between Benfica and Real Madrid.
Vinicius was very upset with something that Prestianni said to him after he had given his side the lead at Estádio da Luz. The game was halted for 10 minutes, with both sets of players leaving the pitch.
After the match, Mourinho suggested that Vinicius had provoked the abuse himself. When asked if Vinicius had 'incited' the Benfica players and the crowd with his celebration, he responded:
"Yeah, I believe so. I want to be independent, I don't want to say I believe Prestianni and don't believe Vini because they said two completely different things. I want to be independent, and I don't comment about it.
"I told him, 'When you score a goal like that, you just celebrate and walk back.' When he was arguing about racism, I told him, 'The biggest person in the history of this club [Benfica] was black. This club, the last thing it is, is racist. If in his mind it was something in relation to that, this is Benfica."
Mourinho's comments sparked outrage, with Wayne Rooney, Clarence Seedorf and Theo Walcott among those that criticised him.
Liam Rosenior
Liam Rosenior
Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior was asked about the incident in his press conference ahead of his side's clash against Burnley on Saturday afternoon.
He gave an emotional answer where he spoke about defended Vinicius and said any form of racism is 'unacceptable'. He said:
"It's upsetting. There's context that needs to be had in terms of this situation. Always there has to be context to it.
"What I will say, you can see any form of racism in society, let alone football, is unacceptable. It's unacceptable. I cannot speak about an incident where an investigation is ongoing. I won't speak about that incident.
"What I would say is when you see a player upset, how Vinicius Junior was upset, normally they're upset for a reason. I've been racially abused myself. I know people have been racially abused.
"What people have to understand is when you are judged for something that you should be proud of, it is the worst feeling you can ever possibly imagine. There are historical things to racism. I need to, as manager of this unbelievable football club, make my statement on it.
"If any player or any coach or any manager has ever found guilty of racism, they shouldn't be in the game. It's as simple as that for me. What I will not do categorically is talk about one incident when there's an ongoing investigation."
A reporter then asked Rosenior: "Jose Mourinho, someone seeped into the history of this football club, gave the impression that Vinicius provoked that situation himself. As manager to manager, what did you make of his comments and the way Benfica handled this situation?"
Rosenior refused to address Mourinho's comments directly, but reiterated that any player or manager found guilty of racism 'shouldn't be in the game.'
He responded: "Again, it's context. What I would say is regardless how a player celebrates, race should never come into it.
"That is an ongoing investigation. What I'm not going to do, I don't know the context of the situation. I don't know the context in which Jose said what he said, and I won't make a judgement on it.
"It's the same thing. I won't make a judgement until you get the facts. It's difficult for me to make a judgement. What I will say is if any player or any coach is ever found guilty of racism, they shouldn't be in the game. It's as simple as that."
Chelsea are currently fifth in the Premier League and will be looking to pick up all three points against relegation-threatened Burnley on Saturday afternoon.