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London - The Football Association has dismissed Jose Mourinho's claims that his English was a factor in the criticism of officials that earned him a £50,000 fine and a suspended one-match stadium ban.
Mourinho was sanctioned by the FA last week for saying referee Robert Madley had been "afraid" to award a penalty in Chelsea's 3-1 loss to Southampton on October 3.
The Chelsea manager described the fine as a "disgrace" and the prospect of a stadium ban as "absolutely astonishing".
But the FA on Monday published the independent regulatory commission's written reasons for the punishments, which Mourinho last week said he would appeal against.
Mourinho did not attend a hearing, instead representing himself in writing. He admitted the
The three-man panel rejected that assertion and also threw out Mourinho's comments on English not being his first language.
"His English is far too sophisticated for that to affect our conclusion, as the interviews themselves demonstrate," the written reasons said.
Mourinho bemoaned the perceived inconsistency between his calling Madley "afraid" and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger's criticism of referee Mike Dean as "weak" and "naive", which went unpunished, but that claim was also rejected by the FA.
"Mr Mourinho's
"It appears to us that increasing levels of fine are not on their own going to be a reliable deterrent for Mr Mourinho against improper comments to the media.
"We have in mind particularly that the more than doubling of
"In our judgement the fair way to impose this deterrent is to suspend the ban so that Mr Mourinho is able quite easily to avoid its ever coming into effect. The matter is in his hands. All he has to do is refrain from any further breach by media comments for the next 12 months, whereupon the ban will expire completely."
