Chelsea FC manager Jose Mourinho has not been happy with the A?50,000-fine and a possible stadium ban, imposed upon him by the FA. The Portuguese did not mince his words, while calling the punishment a a disgracea .
There have also been suggestions, mainly from Mourinho himself, that his English might have been one of the contributing factors for the ban.
The FA however, completely rubbished these claims, as they went public with a statement saying that they had no illusions regarding the Chelsea managera s command over the English language. The three-member panel, assigned by the FA to Mourinhoa s case, rejected the claims that the Portuguesea s words may have been misconstrued because English is not his mother-tongue.
a His English is far too sophisticated for that to affect our conclusion, as the interviews themselves demonstrate,a said the panel in a written response that was published on Daily Mail . .
a Mr Mourinhoa s comments in this case were so clearly on the wrong side of the line that there is no need to go into this issue at all. It is no mitigation for Mr Mourinho,a the panel further said.
The Chelsea FC manager had earlier criticised referee Robert Madeley, saying that the latter was a afraida of awarding a penalty to Chelsea. Something that has irked the Portuguese manager is that the FA had chosen to punish him for his words, while Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger seemed to have gotten away with calling referee Mike Dean a weaka and a naA?vea after their loss to Chelsea.
The panel also said that the possibility of the suspended stadium ban has been hung over Mourinhoa s head because of recurring violations of code of conduct by media comments.
a We have in mind that the more than doubling of the January 2015 fine as compared with the May 2014 fine has not deterred him from his latest and more serious breach,a said the panel. a In our judgement the fair way to impose this deterrent is to suspend the ban so that Mr Mourinho is able quite easily to avoid its ever coming into effect. The matter is in his hands. All he has to do is refrain from any further breach by media comments for 12 months, whereupon the ban will expire completely.a
In spite of the punishments, the Portuguese has not shied away from making comments criticising the FA for this punishment. It would be interesting to see whether the Portuguese actually adheres to this ban, and keeps himself out of further trouble.
