Mourinho banned for defining game
Jose Mourinho has been banned by the FA from the match expected to determine if he survives as Chelsea manager.
The Portuguese, fighting for his job after suffering a sixth Barclays Premier League defeat of the season against Liverpool on Saturday, will not be allowed inside the Britannia Stadium when his team meet Stoke this weekend, after being given a one-match ban and a £40,000 fine.
And on another dramatic day at Stamford Bridge, Carlo Ancelotti and Claude Makelele emerged as a possible Chelsea dream ticket if Mourinho is sacked.
Mourinho has come under serious fire during a hugely difficult few months at Stamford Bridge
Ancelotti and Makelele worked together for two years at Paris Saint-Germain before going their separate ways in 2013.
Both enjoyed success at Chelsea, both remain popular among the supporters and both are out of work. Ancelotti left Real Madrid last summer and Makelele was sacked within six months of leaving PSG for his first managerial job at another French club, Bastia.
Ancelotti is in London — on holiday he insists — and the Italian is by no means certain to accept the offer of a return to the job he lost in 2011, when he was sacked a year after winning the Double.
The 56-year-old said on Monday: ‘I am sure that I won’t miss the dugout until June. From July, I will be ready to go.’
Mourinho was hit with a misconduct charge after being sent to the stands in his side’s 2-1 defeat at West Ham last month. And while he is still expected to travel to Stoke and watch the game from the team hotel, the ban could not come at a more difficult time, given it was only last week that Chelsea lost at Stoke in the Capital One Cup.
An Independent Regulatory Commission confirmed Mourinho’s punishment takes immediate effect, although an appeal could delay it. Mourinho and Chelsea will decide how to respond once they have received the FA’s written reasons for the ban later this week.
Makelele joined Chelsea from Spanish giants Real Madrid in 2003 and enjoyed a magnificent spell at the club
Makelele won six trophies during his five-year stint in London.
WHAT DOES A STADIUM BAN MEAN?
Jose Mourinho will be banned from Chelsea’s next Premier League game — at Stoke this Saturday. According to FA rules he is ‘banned from attending, at any time on the match day, the stadium or the ground at which Chelsea’s first team plays its next match in an approved competition’. He will not be able to communicate with his players or coaching staff, either.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
The FA will release their written reasons later this week, at which point Jose has a right to appeal. If he does so, that could delay proceedings and mean he is free to attend the Stoke match. But if the decision is upheld he could miss a future game. Chelsea’s following two league games are Norwich at home (Nov 21) and Tottenham away (Nov 29).
IS THERE ANY WAY AROUND IT?
In theory, no. But that’s not stopped Jose before. To avoid a similar ban from UEFA in 2005, Mourinho entered Stamford Bridge undetected for a Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich and fed information to his assistants from the dressing room. He later left the ground in a laundry basket.
WHERE MIGHT HE WATCH THE GAME?
The game is live on Sky Sports, so Jose could watch from the team hotel or the local boozer. St George’s Park is just down the road so he could drop in to FA HQ and watch it there. If he wants to get closer to the action, some Stoke fans still try to watch for free from a hill that overlooks the Britannia Stadium.
An FA statement read: ‘Jose Mourinho admitted an FA charge of misconduct regarding his language and/or behaviour towards the match officials in or around the dressing room area during half-time of the game against West Ham United on 24 October 2015.’
The FA also confirmed they had withdrawn a misconduct charge against Chelsea coach Silvino Louro after an incident during the same game, having ‘considered further representation’.
Earlier, Mourinho discovered he will be sued for personal damages by former Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro in addition to the constructive dismissal claim she is bringing against the Premier League champions.
Legal papers will be served on him by Carneiro’s legal team this week and could result in him having to appear in person at an employment tribunal, should the case not be settled out of court.
Mourinho would have to appear in court irrespective of whether he remains Chelsea manager because, under employment law, an individual can be personally liable for damages if victimisation or discrimination can be proved.
The claim made against Mourinho will be on the basis that he was central to the decision by Chelsea to strip Carneiro of her first-team duties at the club.
Mourinho was highly critical of Carneiro and physiotherapist Jon Fearn for responding to a request by the referee to treat Eden Hazard during the Premier League match with Swansea in August. At the time a fuming Mourinho called the pair ‘impulsive and naive’.
It marked the end of Carneiro’s involvement with the Chelsea first team and she is now pursuing a constructive dismissal claim after leaving Stamford Bridge. Edward Belam, an employment lawyer at Howard Kennedy, said: ‘This could be a substantial compensation claim.
‘Her claim for constructive unfair dismissal would be against the club, but she can also bring discrimination claims against Jose Mourinho over his acts of alleged discrimination, and seek compensation for loss of earnings and up to £30,000 for injury to feelings.
‘She will no doubt argue that the compensation should be at the higher end due to the media attention and effect on her reputation.’
(DailyMail)
