Mourinho fined £25K for his ‘campaign’ against Chelsea comments

Jose Mourinho has been fined £25,000 and warned over his future conduct by the Football Association for claiming there was a “clear campaign” against Chelsea.

The Blues boss’ complaints following the draw at Southampton on December 28 were found to be improper and brought the game into disrepute.

An independent regulatory commission found, however, that the comments did not imply officials were biased against Chelsea.

An FA statement read: “Following an independent regulatory commission hearing, Jose Mourinho has been fined £25,000 after he was found to have breached FA rules in relation to media comments.”

Mourinho attended a personal hearing after being charged following the comments, which came after Cesc Fabregas was denied a penalty and instead booked for a dive at St Mary’s.

It followed incidents of diving in previous matches involving Diego Costa, Willian, Branislav Ivanovic and Gary Cahill.

The Portuguese said afterwards: “That’s a campaign, that’s a clear campaign.

“People, pundits, commentators, coaches from other teams – they react with Chelsea in a way they don’t react to other teams.

“They put lots of pressure on the referee and the referee makes a mistake like this. We lose two points, Fabregas earns a yellow card.

“In other countries where I worked before, tomorrow in the sports papers it would be a front-page scandal because it is a scandal.

“I think it is a scandal because it is not a small penalty – it is a penalty like Big Ben.

“In this country – and I am happy with that, more than happy with that – we will just say that it was a big mistake with a big influence in the result.

“I am happy that it is this way, with respect for the referee. He made a big mistake like I make, like the players make sometimes.”

The FA statement added: “The Chelsea manager denied that comments he made after the game against Southampton on December 28, 2014 constituted improper conduct in that they alleged and/or implied bias on the part of a referee or referees, and/or brought the game into disrepute.

“The independent regulatory commission found the comments were a breach of FA rule E3 in that they were improper and brought the game into disrepute.

“The commission did not, however, find that the comments implied bias on the part of a referee or referees.

“Mr Mourinho, who had requested a non-personal hearing, was also warned as to his future conduct.”