Jose Mourinho faces a Four-Match Ban for Offensive Remarks
The Portuguese descent manager, Jose Mourinho has found himself in troubled waters after his recent accusation by Turkish club Galatasaray of passing racist comments against them.
Following the derogatory remarks made by Jose for a Turkish official post the completion of a game against archrivals Galatasaray, he was charged with a heavy monetary fine. In addition, he was handed a four-match suspension by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) on Thursday.
The Fenerbahce manager was fined an approx. $ 44,000 USD (1,617,000 Turkish Lira) for his harsh criticism of the match official during a post-match press conference, after Monday’s 0-0 Super Lig tie against the Galatasaray FC.
The offensive statements by Mourinho after the Istanbul Derby certainly did not go down positively with the opposing club, following which on Tuesday February 25, the Fenerbahce management released an official statement stating Jose’s comments had been taken “completely taken out of context”.
The 0-0 draw was refereed by Slavko Vincic as both the competing clubs had submitted a request for a foreign official to take charge of the match. However, the fourth official was a Turkish man and there came Mourinho’s criticism during his post-match news conference.
The coach-cum-manager remarked that he went to the referee’s dressing room after Monday’s game and told him, as quoted that “if you were a referee, this match would be a disaster”.
“The performance of the referee was a top performance,” Mourinho said it earlier unabashedly.
On Thursday, the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) confirmed that it would sanction Mourinho on two separate disciplinary issues.
The TFF stated in an official press release that it would penalise him for
- “his derogatory and offensive statements towards the Turkish referee”
- he “accused Turkish football of chaos and disorder with insulting and offensive statements towards both the Turkish football community and all Turkish referees”.
The former Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur leader has been banned from the dressing room and dugout for two consecutive games and imposed with a heavy fine. He was also charged with another two-match ban for “an act against sportsmanship” during his post-match news conference.
His unpleasant comments included him saying that “after the big dive in the first minute and their bench jumping like monkeys on the top of the kid… with a Turkish referee you would have a yellow card after one minute and after five minutes I would have to change [substitute] him”, in a matter pertaining to an on-field incident with his 19-year-old defender Yusuf Akcicek.
After the incident blew out of proportion, several revered football athletes who have played under Mourinho extended an olive branch to show their support and solidarity to the former Real Madrid manager.
Fenerbahce officials in their statement have affirmed that the club will indeed appeal against the penalties put on Mourinho, as the remarks were purposefully misrepresented and conveniently taken out of context. The club declared that it intended to file a lawsuit “against this baseless accusation.”
