The Football Association is to look at introducing rules to stop managers interfering with medical staff in the wake of the Eva Carneiro case.
The outcry that followed the FA’s decision not to act against José Mourinho after he effectively demoted the Chelsea club doctor for entering the pitch to treat Eden Hazard has led to calls for change.
“It may well be that we need to think about more effective sanctions if protocols are breached,” said the FA director Heather Rabbatts. “Perhaps a disciplinary offence if there are interferences with the referee and the medical staff.”
Speaking at the Leaders Sport Business Summit, Rabbatts said the issue was on the agenda at the FA and it would examine whether to change its rules to specifically prohibit managers and coaches from interfering with medical professionals.
“We have to look within the FA at the processes and we will do so in the forthcoming weeks,” she said. “The issue of safeguarding players is clearly vitally important, and there are a number of concerns shared by Premier League doctors and the association of medical practitioners.
“ There are a number of things to look at and reflect how we can do better, and I sincerely hope we see Eva Carneiro back in football soon.”
Rabbatts, an independent director and chair of the FA’s Inclusion Advisory Board, said last week the organisation’s reaction to the affair had been “seriously disappointing” after Carneiro left Chelsea following the incident.
She said: “The FA’s reaction to the treatment of Dr Eva Carneiro has been seriously disappointing. I have major concerns over the way in which the disciplinary process has been conducted and the lack of an organisational response to the wider issues raised by this case.
“A highly respected medic, a woman at the top of her profession in football, has been mistreated, undermined, verbally abused and yet no one apart from Dr Carneiro has faced significant consequences.”
The Women in Football campaign group had submitted expert evidence that it said showed Mourinho was specifically targeting Carneiro with sexist abuse when he exploded in fury as she and another medic, Jon Fearn, entered the pitch to treat Hazard.
The FA said its own independent expert found no evidence Mourinho had specifically targeted Carneiro, who had been at Chelsea since 2009.
Carneiro has said that “at no stage” was she requested by the FA to make a statement following the incident in August. “I wonder whether this might be the only formal investigation in this country where the evidence of the individuals involved in the incident was not considered relevant,” she added.
The FA insisted it had written to Carneiro’s lawyers to offer her the chance to state her case.
Rabbatts has also been charged with examining whether the FA’s disciplinary rules around public and private information should be revisited in the light of incidents involving the Premier League executive chairman, Richard Scudamore, and the former Cardiff City manager Malky Mackay.
