English Premier League: Chelsea angered by FA’s Jose Mourinho punishment

London: Chelsea are furious with the Football Association after Jose Mourinho received a suspended one-match stadium ban for claiming referees were “afraid” to give decisions in favour of his team.

Mourinho was also fined £50,000 (Dh281,800) after pleading guilty to an FA charge of misconduct, which has increased the feeling inside Chelsea that their manager gets harshly dealt with while others, namely Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger, go unpunished.

Chelsea and Mourinho anticipated an FA fine, but were astonished by the suspended stadium ban. The FA has punished only one Premier League manager with a stadium ban, when Alan Pardew was sanctioned for butting David Meyler in March 2014.

Mourinho’s stadium ban will be immediately enforced if he is found guilty of another breach of FA rules relating to comments made to or through the media before October 13, 2016. He would then be prevented from entering any stadium in which Chelsea played for one game, denying him the right to take charge of the side or deliver a team talk.

While Chelsea will not comment on Mourinho’s punishment until they have seen the FA’s written reasons, the view at Stamford Bridge is that it is one rule for their manager and another for others, in particular Wenger. Mourinho himself said he would have got a stadium ban if he had pushed Wenger, yet the Arsenal manager escaped punishment for doing that to him last season.

Wenger also went unpunished by the FA for calling the referee Mike Dean “naive” and “weak” after Arsenal’s defeat against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last month. Chelsea and Mourinho firmly believe those comments constitute a greater offence than his general assessment that referees are “afraid” to give his team decisions.

The fact Mourinho, 52, feels he is being repeatedly singled out by the FA means there is unlikely to be much co-operation from the Portuguese if he is asked to help the governing body over different issues and events in the future.

Following Chelsea’s 3-1 defeat by Southampton, in which he felt Radamel Falcao was fouled in the penalty area, Mourinho said: “When we are at the top there is quite big pleasure in putting us down. But when you are so down I think it is time to be honest and say clearly that referees are afraid to give decisions to Chelsea.”

— The Daily Telegraph