Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has been fined £50,000 and given a suspended one-match stadium ban for comments made about the refereeing in the Blues’ 3-1 loss to Southampton before the international break. Mourinho’s punishment comes after being charged with misconduct by England’s FA on Oct. 5, with his suspension to be served if he breaks the same rule any time within the next year.
From The FA:
“Mr Mourinho’s suspended stadium ban will be immediately invoked should he be found by an Independent Regulatory Commission to have committed a further breach of FA Rule E3 for any comment or statement to or through the media before 13 October 2016.”
Following his team’s Oct. 3 loss at home to the Saints, Mourinho spoke for seven straight minutes to Sky Sports. The speech covered his team’s play, his future as manager at Chelsea as well as the performance of the officials in the just-concluded match:
“With the score at 1-1 the result is huge penalty and once more we don’t get,” Mourinho told Sky Sports. “A penalty at a crucial moment in the game with the result at 1-1, I repeat, if the FA wants to punish me they can punish me they do not punish other managers, they punish me it’s not a problem for me.”
SEE MORE: Chelsea desperately needs a leader, and that leader must be Mourinho.
Southampton had also seen multiple potential penalties fail to be called, including two in the first half.
“But I want to repeat my players deserve it, the Chelsea fans deserve it, I am a Chelsea fan too,” Mourinho continued. “I want to say it again too, referees are afraid to give decisions for Chelsea.
After discussing his team’s response and the potential of being fired from his job, Mourinho concluded his speech by reiterating his thoughts on the match officials:
“And I repeat and make it clear again, I don’t want to be offensive or non-polite, or to question the dignity of the people, but I repeat: the referees are afraid of giving decisions, and when you are top and you want to see people come down – when people are down give us a break and be honest with us because the team deserves that and the penalty is clear and 2-1 is a completely different story.”
SEE MORE: Remembering when Mourinho, Costa were La Liga’s problems.
Chelsea returns from the international break on Saturday when they host Aston Villa.
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