CHELSEA’S FURY OVER COSTA BAN
Legal bid looms over Jose row
DIEGO COSTA has been banned for three games after the FA’s independent regulatory commission found him guilty of violent conduct following his flare-up with Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny on Saturday. The Chelsea bad-boy will miss tonight’s Capital One Cup tie against Walsall, Saturday’s Barclays Premier League clash at Newcastle and their home game with Southampton. Chelsea are furious with the decision and with referee Mike Dean after he retrospectively claimed he would have sent off Costa for the 43rd-minute incident with Koscielny. In a statement last night Chelsea said they were ‘extremely disappointed with the decision’. Costa denied his violent conduct charge at 6pm yesterday and the FA immediately agreed to hear his case so Chelsea would know the outcome before the game at Walsall. Arsenal defender Gabriel, sent off for his part in the Stamford Bridge bust-up, had his three-game ban rescinded after the Gunners provided new video evidence. The Costa ban came as it was confirmed that Dr Eva Carneiro had left Chelsea following the row with manager Jose Mourinho during the home League match against Swansea City on August 8.
CHELSEa and Dr Eva Carneiro have parted company, with the club braced for what could prove an expensive legal battle.
The news has invited criticism from within the Fa board room, with board member Heather Rabbatts expressing her ‘sadness and anger’ at Dr Carneiro’s departure.
The now former Chelsea firstteam doctor was ordered to return to work last Friday for what would have been her first appearance at the club’s Cobham training ground since a bust-up with manager Jose Mourinho during the Premier League match against Swansea City on august 8.
But Carneiro did not show, and according to club insiders yesterday she has still not been seen there. It is now clear that she has departed the club — as revealed by MailOnline yesterday.
Defending the doctor’s actions against Swansea, Rabbatts said last night: ‘any other response would have been a dereliction of her duty and a breach of General Medical Council guidelines.
‘In acting properly she was then subject to verbal abuse and public criticism and in effect demoted by her removal from the bench.
‘Her departure raises a serious question on how players are safeguarded if their medical support is compromised.
‘Eva was one of the few very senior women in the game, a highly respected doctor who has acted with professional integrity in difficult circumstances.’
Chelsea may argue that her failure to turn up for work could weaken her case for constructive dismissal, even though arriving at Cobham could have amounted to accepting new terms of employment after she was publicly stripped of first-team duties. Chelsea are aware that the Gibraltar-born medic is consulting top employment lawyers.
Carneiro was banned from the bench and team hotel after Mourinho publicly accused her of making a mistake when she and team physiotherapist Jon Fearn rushed on to the pitch to treat Eden Hazard, having twice been waved on by referee Michael Oliver.
Mourinho’s explosive reaction at the time is the subject of an Fa inquiry — as Sportsmail revealed last week — after a member of the public made a complaint, claiming that the Portuguese manager had shouted ‘filha da puta’; something that means ‘daughter of a whore’ and, if proven, could lead to Mourinho being banned for five matches.
Yesterday Fa officials said the video evidence submitted as part of the complaint was still being reviewed. Mourinho’s accusation that his medical staff did not understand the game was met with widespread disapproval by Carneiro’s peers.
FIFa’s chief medical officer was among those to remind Mourinho that the welfare of players is the responsibility of medical staff and not the manager.
Indeed, a joint statement from the British association of Sport and Exercise Medicine and the 500-strong Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine has been sent to the League Managers’ association.
The Fa’s position remains unclear. While it seems unlikely, Mourinho could yet be charged under the Fa rule E3, which states that players and coaches can be punished for using ‘offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures’.
With an aggravated breach, in this case possibly with reference to gender, a five-match ban is the minimum sanction.