Jose Mourinho has chosen not to appeal against the stadium ban that the Football Association issued him with in the aftermath of Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat to West Ham on October 24th. It means he will not be present in the stadium for the Blues’ game against Stoke City this weekend.
The 52 year old can travel with the team and be responsible for substitutions, but he will not be allowed to enter The Britannia Stadium. Speaking of his decision not to appeal the ban Mourinho said, “I have decided to give up. It is stupid to fight a fight you know you are going to lose”.
The punishment against Mourinho came on the back of his behaviour during his side’s game against West Ham United at The Boleyn Ground. The charge was for misconduct owing to the Portuguese manager’s language and behaviour. It is believed that he attempted to enter the referee’s room during the half-time interval in order to speak to the match referee about his decisions.
Mourinho was sent to the stands for the second half of the match and had to watch from the West Ham executive box as Andy Carroll scored the winner in the London derby. Asked about where he will watch the Stoke game from and how he feels about the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ said, “You can imagine that it’s not easy. You can imagine how I feel. I have no plans to watch. Maybe I sit in the street corner with my iPad. Maybe I don’t even watch the game. Maybe, live scores? Results?”
On top of the stadium plan Jose Mourinho was also given a £40,000 fine. After the loss to West Ham Chelsea went on to lose to Stoke City, the side they face this weekend, on penalties in the League Cup before losing 3-1 at home to Liverpool. It is the sixth loss Mourinho’s side has suffered in the league this season, leaving them in 15th place in the Premier League on 11 points after the same amount of games.
In a separate incident, Mourinho has been fined £50,000 by the Football Association and given a one match suspended stadium ban because of comments he made in the wake of his team’s game against Southampton at Stamford Bridge. Mourinho did appeal against the fine but the FA dismissed his appeal.
Speaking about the stadium ban that will keep him from the touchline this weekend the defending Premier League champion’s manager said, “This stadium ban is connected to words, to complaints. I can imagine that in the future we are going to have lots of managers with stadium bans, because the stadium bans should be related to something really serious”.