Jose Mourinho banned for refusal to leave referee’s room and abuse

Jose Mourinho received a stadium ban for Saturday's trip to Stoke City after twice refusing to leave the referee Jon Moss's dressing room at Upton Park last month and angrily accusing the officials of being "fucking weak".

The English Football Association published the written reasons for Mourinho’s one-match stadium ban and £40,000 (€56,000) fine, issued after he was sent to the stands by Moss for the second half of Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat at West Ham on October 25th, on Friday evening.

The three-man disciplinary commission had taken into account the Portuguese's previous record, noting four monetary sanctions imposed for misconduct since his return to England in 2013, when determining he would become the first Premier League manager to be banned from the stadium on match-day since Alan Pardew early last year.

The reasons include the publication of Moss's report on the West Ham fixture, submitted to the FA, which quotes the official as writing: "When myself and my colleagues left the field of play at half-time, as we entered the tunnel area to get to our dressing room, Mr Mourinho the Chelsea manager was waiting for us clearly agitated and began aggressively asking about first half decisions. Rather than publicly speak to him I asked him to step into the entrance of my dressing room escorted by Simon Sutton, the West Ham United Security Manager.

“Mr Mourinho asked me about a tackle, an offside and a goal-line clearance. I gave him brief answers to his questions. After this I asked him to leave the dressing room area. He refused. I asked him again. After he refused again I asked Mr Sutton to escort him from the room. At this point Mr Mourinho became very aggressive and animated. He shouted that you fucking referees are weak . . . [Arsene] Wenger is right about you . . . you are fucking weak. I advised Mr Mourinho not to take his position in the technical area for the second half due to his actions.”

The incidents mentioned appeared to be Nemanja Matic's challenges, which saw the Serb dismissed for two bookable offences just before the break, a goal ruled out for offside against Cesc Febregas and a header from Kurt Zouma which, according to goal-line technology, did not cross the line.

The assistant referees and fourth official backed up Moss’s report with similar observations of the behaviour and language used by the Chelsea manager, with Sutton eventually having escorted the Portuguese away. He watched the second half from the back of the directors’ box as his team lost 2-1.

Mourinho had admitted the charge and, while the commission considered that to be to his credit, they bemoaned “a total lack of respect for the Match Officials and the sanctuary of their changing room”, adding: “That is a most serious matter and has to be dealt with accordingly.” The manager’s previous disciplinary record suggested to them that a monetary fine alone would not dissuade him from a repeat in future, prompting them to consider a touchline or extended touchline ban.

“But given the location in which the offence was committed and the limitations of a touchline ban, namely that Mr Mourinho would still be permitted to be in or around the dressing room areas during the match day, we did not consider a touchline ban to be sufficient,” added the commission in the written reasons.

“To only order a touchline ban would have the potential of enabling Mr Mourinho to commit a similar offence whilst serving his suspension since he would be allowed to access the area around the changing rooms. We considered a stadium ban to be the appropriate sporting sanction for the offence committed by Mr Mourinho.”

As a result Mourinho – who confirmed on Friday he had opted against appealing the sanction – will not be permitted to enter the Britannia stadium on Saturday, or to enter or use any facilities on the site of the ground. Likewise, he will be unable to take up a position immediately outside the perimeter of the stadium “that enables him to have a direct view of the field of play”. The manager has yet to determine where he will watch the game, which is live on television on Saturday evening.

(Guardian service)