Jose Mourinho gets stadium ban and fine for confronting referee

• Chelsea manager will be barred for game at Stoke City
• FA punishment relates to half-time altercation with Jon Moss at West Ham

Posted Tuesday, November 03, 2015 by theguardian.com

Jose Mourinho, Chelsea’s manager, has been fined £40,000 and given a one-match ban for his behaviour at half-time in the defeat by West Ham last month.

The sense of chaos engulfing Chelsea and their beleaguered manager, Jose Mourinho, has intensified after the Portuguese was handed a one-match stadium ban which could prevent him playing any part in his side’s potentially critical game at Stoke City on Saturday.

The Football Association confirmed on Monday evening that an independent regulatory commission had determined Mourinho should serve a suspension and be fined £40,000, pending appeal, having been sent to the stands at half-time during last month’s 2-1 defeat at West Ham United. The 52-year-old, incensed by the dismissals of Nemanja Matic and his assistant first-team coach Silvino Louro, had confronted the referee, Jon Moss, at the interval with the subsequent misconduct charge relating to the language he used and his refusal to leave the officials’ room.

Mourinho, who is understood to have sworn at Moss and made reference to Arsène Wenger calling the official “soft” in the past, watched the second half from the back of the directors’ box as Andy Carroll scored West Ham’s late winner. The Chelsea manager had admitted the misconduct charge. His appeal against a £50,000 fine and suspended one-match stadium ban for suggesting officials were “afraid” to award his side decisions following the defeat by Southampton on 3 October is still ongoing and considered as a separate incident by the FA.

Chelsea declined to comment but will await the commission’s written reasons, which are anticipated in the next few days, before deciding whether or not to appeal against the sanction. There is no indication as yet whether, having scrutinised those the reasoning, they might then consider imposing their own internal discipline on Mourinho himself, akin to that handed to a player who receives a red card.

If no appeal is lodged, Mourinho will be absent from the Britannia Stadium where he would be barred from any communication with his players or coaching staff at the ground on matchday. His would be the first stadium ban incurred by a manager in the Premier League since Alan Pardew was handed a three-game stadium ban, four-match touchline suspension and £60,000 fine for head-butting Hull City’s David Meyler while manager of Newcastle United in March 2014. Such punishments may be considered more regularly in future given they represent a much more serious sanction than a touchline ban.

The timing of Mourinho’s ban could arguably not be worse. Saturday’s dismal 3-1 home defeat by Liverpool was a sixth from 11 games in Chelsea’s spluttering title defence and, having already received a public vote of confidence cleared by Roman Abramovich in the wake of the Southampton defeat, he will now miss a game on which his second spell in charge at Stamford Bridge may hinge.

Support remains within the champions’ hierarchy for a manager who claimed the title only six months ago and who signed a new four-year contract worth around £8.5m-a-year in the summer. Yet that backing is being undermined by poor results and by Mourinho’s now regular run-ins with officialdom as well as the authorities which are giving the impression that this is a man who is losing control. If he fails to have the £50,000 sanction for his criticisms of referees after the Southampton game reduced – the result of that appeal should be known later this week – he will have incurred £141,000 in fines since returning to England in the summer of 2013.

The commission’s decision capped a miserable day for Mourinho, who is preparing for Wednesday’s visit of Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League, after it emerged he is to be made the subject of an individual legal claim by the former Chelsea club doctor, Eva Carneiro, arising from an incident at the end of the draw with Swansea in their opening league game. Legal papers are set to be served on Mourinho later this week as part of separate but connected claims against him and against the club. He would have to appear in person at an employment tribunal unless the case is settled out of court beforehand. Under employment law, an individual can be personally liable for damages if victimisation or discrimination can be proved.

Mourinho will be in the dugout for the visit of Dynamo – Chelsea are third in their Champions League group, a point behind the Ukrainians – with the need to instigate an upturn in form in the two games before the international window all too clear. Louro, who had denied an FA misconduct charge in relation to his conduct before the break at West Ham, saw his own punishment withdrawn by the governing body which, instead, opted to remind the coach “of his responsibilities”.