Despite risking the wrath of the football authorities for speaking out, Jose Mourinho has let it be known what he thinks about Dele Alli’s one match ban for Tottenham Hotspur, meaning he will miss Friday night’s game against Manchester United.
Alli was reprimanded by the Premier League for posting a video on social media mocking an Asian man and suggesting a link to coronavirus.
The Daily Mail note than an independent commission came to the conclusion that the player did not intentionally discriminate against the Asian man, nor had he set out to be insulting or racially stereotypical.
However, they ruled that the video did ‘imply a reference to race and nationality.’
“I feel very, very sorry that he’s not playing,” Mourinho said in a news conference, held by video link on Thursday and cited by the Daily Mail.
“He’s a player that works so hard during all this period and he’s really frustrated that he cannot play the first match.
“I don’t want to say much more than I don’t think he deserves a one-match ban compared with wrong behaviours at much bigger dimensions that happened during this period without any consequences.”
With the north Londoners four points behind United and seven shy of Chelsea who currently occupy the final Champions League qualification spot, the need for Mourinho to have his first choice players available is obvious.
Alli has since apologised for the video and will surely hope that a line can quickly be drawn under the controversy.