New Delhi: Fenerbahce manager Jose Mourinho has been banned for four games and fined £35,194 by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) for comments made following Monday’s game against Galatasaray.
After the Istanbul derby, the legendary manager in the post-match conference claimed that Galatasaray’s staff “were jumping like monkeys” in reaction to an early match incident involving defender Yusuf Akcicek. For which Galatasaray accused him of making racial comments.
On Tuesday, Fenerbahce released a statement saying that Mourinho’s comments had been “taken completely out of context”. The draw was referred by Slovenian Slavko Vincic after both clubs requested a foreign referee to officiate the game but the fourth referee was Turkish, and the Portuguese repeated his criticism for Turkish referees in the post-match conference.
Official Statement
We deem it necessary to issue this statement concerning a matter that has dominated the agenda following the match between our Football Team and Galatasaray.
A post-match remark made by our Coach, Jose Mourinho, has been deliberately taken entirely out of… pic.twitter.com/b7CKT6SN2i
— Fenerbahçe English (@Fenerbahce_EN) February 25, 2025
Mourinho said that after the match he went to the referee’s dressing room and told the fourth official that “if you were a referee this match would be a disaster”. The TFF warned him that he will be punished for “his derogatory and offensive statements towards the Turkish referee” as well as for having “accused Turkish football of chaos and disorder with insulting and offensive statements towards both the Turkish football community and all Turkish referees”.
The 62-year-old manager has been banned from the dressing room and dugout for two games and fined £2,543. He has also received another two-match ban for “an act against sportsmanship” during his post-match conference and received a fine of £32,651.
Mourinho’s comment and TFF take
The former Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur manager said that “after the big dive in the first minute and their bench jumping like monkeys on the top of the kid… with a Turkish referee you would have a yellow card after one minute and after five minutes I would have to substitute him”.
Over the statement TFF claimed that the statement by Mourinho towards the members of the opposing team were contrary to the ethics of sports and the concept of fair play. It contained expressions that could encourage violence and disorder in sports, were divisive and separatist in society and could cause fan incidents.
Jose Mourinho receives a four-match ban and £35,194 fine for controversial comments after the fixture between Fenerbahce and Galatasaray. Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
