He’s always been something of an acquired taste and it was no surprise when Jose Mourinho was handed a 10 day touchline ban for his criticism of referees.
Though the ban relates to what the Portuguese said after the game against Monza on May 3, it’s only now that the reasons for the ban and fine received have been published.
The ‘Special One’ does seem to have a habit of making the narrative all about him, particularly when his teams aren’t playing so well.
Perhaps the most unpalatable memory of his time in any dugout is when he poked Barcelona’s Tito Villanova in the eye during an El Clasico melee whilst he was coach at Real Madrid.
The firing of Chelsea club doctor, Eva Carneiro, is also another blot on his copybook, not that it’s made him a changed man.
After the Monza match, Mourinho’s statements to the media were deliberately inflammatory, and as Calcio Finanza note, they were of a personal nature as well as damaging to Italian referees as a whole.
It’s a playbook that the former Chelsea manager has used extensively in the past, and yet, even now, the authorities only see it punishable by a 10 day ban and a fine of €50,000.
‘The statements of Mr. Mourinho released to TV and the press undoubtedly go beyond the limits of an admissible criticism of the work of the referee Chiffi and constitute an open violation of art,’ the FIGC (Italian Football Federation) National Tribunal disclosed in a statement published by Calcio Finanza.
‘[…] Mr. Mourinho with the statements subject to referral – clearly public as they were made during journalistic interviews and known to all – undoubtedly seriously damaged, not only the prestige and reputation of match director Chiffi, with judgments and statements also of a personal nature, but as well as the federal organisation as a whole, arriving at doubting the arbitration designation mechanisms.’