Mourinho put a finger to his lips, demanding silence, after Steven Gerrard headed into his own net to put the Blues level in Cardiff.

He later claimed his reaction was not to the thousands of opposing fans in his vicinity but to the media sat at the other side of the ground.

The Football Association were today awaiting the official match report from referee Steve Bennett, who has already confirmed that details of the incident would be included, before deciding on whether to take further action.

But LMA vice-chairman Frank Clark leapt to the defence of the Portuguese manager when he said: “Was that gesticulation? All I saw was Jose put his fingers to his lips, I thought it was fairly innocuous.

“Obviously someone in a position of authority thought differently but it didn’t seem very provocative to me, I have to say.

“We regularly talk to our members about their responsibility for behaviour in the technical area and we accept they must act in a sensible fashion within that area. We are all conscious of crowd safety at football matches but this was mild.”

Those responsible for security on the day were clearly concerned that the action could threaten public order, however, coming as it did in a highly-charged atmosphere.

If the powers at Soho Square, after reviewing the officials’ report, deem Mourinho was inciting the crowd it could potentially lead to a second FA charge, following his first for claiming Manchester United players were cheating in the Carling Cup semi-final.

But Clark suggested his organisation would back Mourinho – a paid-up LMA member – in such a scenario, regardless of Chelsea’s financial clout.

“If a manager contacts us we would get involved,” Clark said. “If he is charged in any way we would provide the legal assistance if we thought he was being harshly treated.

“Obviously if someone swears at an official in an aggressive manner we would not defend that. That would be different. You cannot defend the indefensible.”