It’s like kids’ football!

JOSE TEARS INTO PREMIER LEAGUE OVER LATE CALL-OFF

JOSE MOURINHO has branded the late postponement of Tottenham’s clash with Fulham ‘unprofessional’ and likened the Premier League’s handling of the situation to his experience managing in kids’ football.

The match was called off on Wednesday due to a coronavirus outbreak at Fulham, and Spurs were angered by the timing of the decision and lack of information they received before the announcement that the game was off less than four hours before kick-off.

Mourinho mocked the Premier League’s status as the best league in the world in a social media post while his players waited at Spurs’ training ground for news.

‘I don’t want to speak too much about it,’ said Mourinho. ‘Just to say I felt it was unprofessional but that’s the way it is — or that’s the way it was.’

Expanding on his comments, Mourinho (below) said: ‘When I was coaching the Under 13 and Under 15 teams 30 years ago, or something like that, sometimes we got to the game at 9.30am and the opponent was not there. Or sometimes you arrive in the game in one of the rare Portuguese raining Sundays and you arrive there and the referee didn’t report.

‘ I grew up with these situations and was very frustrated for everyone, especially for the kids who you want to play football and who don’t play football, and you only know in the last minutes. The same almost happened to us. Arriving in the stadium and not playing almost happened.’

The lack of clarity as the situation developed was a major issue for Spurs. ‘The day before the game, the press was full of “the game is going to be postponed”. Even foreign players were coming to me saying that in their own countries the news was very clear that the game was going to be postponed. And myself as their boss and Daniel Levy as my boss, we couldn’t tell them anything.

‘ When I say unprofessional, maybe it’s not the right word. Of course I am not referring to Fulham, I am referring to the organisation. I don’t think it’s possible to have a situation like that. I don’t think it’s possible.’

Spurs will now have an extra game to squeeze into their already packed fixture list.

Mourinho described the fact his side reach the halfway, 19-game mark in the league season without having played every other team once and one side twice as ‘not correct at all’.

And Mourinho warned the Premier League against handing Spurs another punishing pile-up like the four games in eight days they faced in September and October.

‘We have to refuse to go through it again,’ he said. ‘It’s impossible, inhuman. We cannot accept it at all if any Einstein comes with the idea of us playing four matches in one week. This is the Premier League, a league with big responsibilities in the world. ‘ The league with, in general terms, the best coaches, with the best clubs, with the best players, with very good referees. ‘I think we have to be good in everything and all be professionals.’