José Mourinho has grudgingly conceded the one-match stadium ban he will serve at Stoke City on Saturday will “change everything” in terms of how he approaches games in future as he contemplates his absence from a match Chelsea desperately need to win to breathe life into their Premier League campaign.
The Portuguese will not be in attendance at the Britannia Stadium after he was sent off for twice refusing to leave the referee Jon Moss’s dressing room at Upton Park last month. The written reasons behind the three-man disciplinary commission’s decision revealed he had accused the officials of being “fucking weak” and had to be escorted away by a member of West Ham United’s security staff. As a result, he will not be permitted on the footprint of the ground for the 5.30pm kick-off.
Mourinho, who opted not to appeal against the first stadium ban handed to a top-flight manager since Alan Pardew head-butted David Meyler last year, would risk further punishment from the Football Association should he remain on the team bus if it is parked on site. Yet, while he suggested he would feel helpless and “unable to do his job” while most likely reduced to watching the game on his iPad, he will be permitted to communicate with his coaching staff, the assistants Rui Faria and Steve Holland, on the bench by telephone.
The commission had taken into account four previous misconduct charges since October 2013 – an appeal over a fifth has since been rejected, taking the combined fines imposed on him to £141,000 – but there is clear resentment in Mourinho’s camp at being punished in this way for an offence “connected to words, to complaints”. The 52-year-old claimed he was “sad” that he felt he would no longer be able to be himself on the touchline or, indeed, in the buildup or aftermath of games.
“I’ve been banned from the bench before but this is a stadium ban, stopping me working,” he said. “It will make me change. Change everything, change everything. The dimension of my punishment, and the stadium ban that stays suspended [a separate charge relating to post-match comments about referees after the defeat to Southampton on 3 October], obviously affects everything. My answers to questions, obviously, are going to be different. The way I participate with the game, obviously, is going to be different.
“I had a game a few days ago where I stood for 90 minutes in my own technical area. The other manager [Liverpool’s Jürgen Klopp] was jumping like Michael Jordan and nothing happened. So, for me, I know everything is different. It’s all changed a lot. This is what I have. I have to adapt to it. I think the message the game’s powers want to give me. The message is more than clear.”
The manager’s own position will inevitably remain under scrutiny while the team’s form remains sluggish – they go into the weekend’s fixture 15th in the table with six defeats from 11 games – but he suggested the FA’s stance would not yet force him from the English game. “When I’m happy in the club, when I’m happy with my players, when I enjoy working with them … that’s fine for me,” he said, suggesting he could “sit on the street corner with my iPad” watching the game, follow it on social media or, instead, “watch a movie”.
The disciplinary commission, who had also fined Mourinho £40,000, took exception to the language and behaviour used by the Chelsea manager after he was invited into the referee’s room by Moss at half-time in the defeat at West Ham on 25 October. Moss’s account of the incident, backed up by that of his assistants and the fourth official, details how the Portuguese was “waiting for us clearly agitated and began aggressively asking about first-half decisions” at the interval. The referee duly invited him and the West Ham security manager, Simon Sutton, into his dressing room.
“Mr Mourinho asked me about a tackle, an offside and a goalline clearance,” wrote Moss, with that a reference to Nemanja Matic’s dismissal, a Cesc Fàbregas disallowed goal and a Kurt Zouma effort ruled out by goalline technology. “I gave him brief answers to his questions. After this I asked him to leave the dressing room area. He refused. I asked him again. After he refused again I asked Mr Sutton to escort him from the room.
“At this point Mr Mourinho became very aggressive and animated. He shouted that you fucking referees are weak... [Arsène] Wenger is right about you … you are fucking weak. I advised Mr Mourinho not to take his position in the technical area for the second half due to his actions.” He watched the second half from the back of the directors’ box.
Mourinho admitted the charge and, while the commission considered that to be to his credit, they pointed to “a total lack of respect for the match officials and the sanctuary of their changing room”, adding: “That is a most serious matter and has to be dealt with accordingly.” A touchline or extended touchline ban was subsequently ruled out because they had “the potential of enabling Mr Mourinho to commit a similar offence whilst serving his suspension since he would be allowed to access the area around the changing rooms.”
