‘I’m happy I’ve not been tagged’
JOSE MOURINHO has reacted angrily to his latest FA punishment, claiming he was relieved not to be given an electronic tag to wear. Mourinho branded his £50,000 fine and suspended stadium ban an ‘absolute disgrace’ and complained he was treated like a criminal while Arsene Wenger could do as he pleased. Wenger escaped when he called referee Mike Dean ‘weak and naive’, while Mourinho was charged for saying officials were ‘afraid’ to award his team a penalty in the defeat against Southampton. The Chelsea boss, speaking at the launch of his book Mourinho in London, also reminded everyone that Wenger went unpunished for pushing him during Arsenal’s defeat at Stamford Bridge last season. ‘I am happy I don’t have an electronic tag,’ said Mourinho. ‘I also think £50,000 in the world where we live today is an absolute disgrace. And I think the possibility of getting a stadium ban is also something absolutely astonishing. ‘More difficult for me to understand is when I compare different people with similar behaviour and similar words. ‘I know my English is not perfect — just good enough to work in this country — but the difference between “afraid” and “weak and naive” is £50,000 and a one-match stadium ban. ‘So, now we know. One, we can push people in the technical area, no problem. The word “afraid” is a hard punishment. But to say the referee was “weak and naive”, referring to one of the top referees in Europe, we can do. ‘Words are more important than aggression in this country,’ he concluded.