Fenerbahce’s coach Jose Mourinho has been handed a four-match ban and a fine by the Turkish Football Federation on Thursday, after his “offensive” comments about Turkish referees in the aftermath of a match against Galatasaray.
The 62-year old Portuguese will have to pay 1,617,000 Turkish lira (€42,616 , $44,000) for criticizing the match officials when speaking to the media after a Super Lig draw on Monday.
Mourinho already served one of his suspended four games on Thursday when he was absent from the bench for Fenerbahce’s 4-1 Turkish Cup win at Gaziantep.
Fenerbahce has appealed the four-game ban, according to Britain’s Sky Sports News. If the appeal is rejected, Mourinho will miss their next three domestic games.
What did Mourinho say about Turkish referees?
Monday’s Super Lig game was refereed by Slavko Vincic of Slovenia.
During a post-match interview, Mourinho welcomed the decision to bring in a foreign referee for the game and congratulated Vincic for a “top performance.”
When the manager saw the fourth official, a Turkish referee, Mourinho said he told him: “If you are the referee … would be a disaster.”
When asked about a challenge early in the match, he said a Turkish referee would have reacted with a yellow card “after the big dive and their bench jumping around like monkeys.”
The Turkish federation said disciplinary measures were taken due to “derogatory and offensive statements towards the Turkish referee” and accusations of chaos and disorder in Turkish football. It further said Mourinho’s remarks violated sports ethics, promoted violence and disorder, and could incite fan incidents.
Mourinho — who has also coached Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur — has previously been fined and suspended for his comments about Turkish match officials.
Comments distorted, says Fenerbahce
Fenerbahce defended Mourinho saying his comments had been “deliberately taken entirely out of context.”
In reference to Mourinho’s use of the word “monkeys” in is criticism the Turkish club said: “As any reasonable person can clearly recognize, the expression used by Jose Mourinho was solely intended to describe the excessive reaction of the opposing team’s technical staff to the referee’s decisions during the match. These remarks cannot, under any circumstances, be associated with racism.”
Edited by: John Silk
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