José Mourinho has branded the Football Association’s decision to hand him a suspended one-match stadium ban as “absolutely astonishing”, while dismissing the accompanying fine as “a disgrace” and suggesting he is only surprised the governing body have not demanded he start wearing an electronic tag.
The Chelsea manager was also fined £50,000 after accepting a misconduct charge for claiming referees had grown "afraid" to give decisions in his team's favour after the home defeat to Southampton. Mourinho has effectively been given a 12-month good behaviour bond with the stadium ban to be enforced if he is found guilty of another breach of FA rules relating to comments made to or through the media before 13 October, 2016.
Yet he still used the launch event for his new book as a platform on which to vent his frustrations at the governing body, whom he feels are repeatedly and unfairly singling him out. Mourinho had accepted at the time he would likely provoke sanction with his post-match comments after the Southampton game but he was taken aback by the severity of the punishment and has grown exasperated at perceived inconsistencies and double standards within the FA’s disciplinary process.
Those centre on the body’s reluctance to charge Arsène Wenger with an offence after he pushed Mourinho having encroached into the home manager’s technical area in a game against Arsenal last season, and the fact the Frenchman escaped sanction for suggesting Mike Dean’s refereeing of the clubs’ meeting in September had been “naive” and “weak”.
“Every word I say is a risk,” Mourinho said. “I am just happy I don’t have an electronic tag but I think it’s not far from that. I also think that [TO BE FINED]£50,000, in the world where we live today, is an absolute disgrace. An absolute disgrace. And I also think that the possibility of getting a stadium ban is also something absolutely astonishing.
“But more difficult for me to understand is when I compare different people with different behaviours or with similar behaviours, with different words or with similar words. I know I’m not English. I know my English is just good enough to work in this country, but is not perfect. But the difference between saying ‘afraid’ and ‘weak and naive’? The difference is £50,000 and [A POTENTIAL]one-match stadium ban. So, for me, the conclusion is there is something that, now, we know.
“One, we can push people in the technical area. We can, no problem. So anyone in the technical area, we can push. Two, the word ‘afraid’ is a punishment, and a hard punishment. But to say the referee was ‘weak and naive’, referring to one of the top referees in this country and in Europe, we can do. So I think the only good thing of this last decision by the FA is that every manager in this country can write in a little book and, when he goes to a press conference, he knows that ‘afraid’ costs £50,000. ‘Weak and naive’, you can use.
“For football in this country, what is more important is a word rather than aggression. So now we know. They are the only two good things I take from that. It’s good for everyone. It’s the only reason I can still walk in London without an electronic tag.”
Those comments are unlikely to be considered worthy of a further improper conduct charge, which would see the stadium ban invoked, with the FA understood to consider them an attack on the governing body rather than the referees.
Chelsea are still awaiting the FA’s written reasons behind the punishment but are likely to appeal.
Mourinho's side currently languish 16th in the division, with four defeats and eight points from their eight Premier League games to date. The latest loss to Southampton prompted the Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich, to issue a public vote of confidence in the manager, with the onus now on the Portuguese to instigate a revival beginning with Saturday's visit of Aston Villa to Stamford Bridge.
A number of senior players have used the international window to back the 52-year-old, though Mourinho was forced to confront suggestions an undercurrent of mutiny remains at the club. "My reaction, and I'm only speaking about the last three or four days, is Asmir Begovic said: 'We have the best manager in the world,'" he added. "Kurt Zouma said the same. John Terry: 'We have the manager we want, the one who can help us to revive this situation.' Diego Costa: 'If you ask every player in the world, they will all answer the same, that they'd like to work with three managers and one of them is this one.'
"Who else? Cesc Fàbregas, the same. Ramires, the same. Ruben Loftus-Cheek, the same. Gay Cahill, the same. Eden Hazard, very similar." He then added with a smile: "So I think the mutiny must be... must be Baba, Baba [RAHMAN]… who else? Papy [DJILOBODJI]? [RADAMEL]Falcao? Oscar? So these four don't play Saturday for sure.
“I’m not going to run away from the moment. The results have been bad but I’m not going to run away from it and I believe more good moments are going to happen again. I signed a new contract a few months ago. When I signed it was not to run away from my responsibilities but to work and fight and wait for the results of our work.”
(Guardian service)
