Manchester United’s Jose Mourinho faces fresh touchline ban

PanARMENIAN.Net - Jose Mourinho is facing a third touchline ban in little more than a year after being sent to the stands for the third time in 20 Premier League matches during Manchester United’s 1-1 draw with West Ham United at Old Trafford on Sunday, November 27, The Guardian reports.

The incident occurred in the 27th minute. A furious Mourinho kicked a water bottle along the touchline after Paul Pogba was booked by Jonathan Moss, the referee, for diving.

The official’s decision was correct and, though Mourinho may have been unsighted from his vantage point, the manager faces a sanction that may be stronger than the one-game bans he received for the previous two incidents.

It is four weeks since Mark Clattenburg sent him to the stands for verbal misconduct in the draw with Burnley at Old Trafford and this falls well inside the 12-month period during which the Football Association can take previous incidents into account. The first sending-off was just over a year ago when the 53-year-old was in charge of Chelsea – also against West Ham, at the Boleyn Ground, when Moss was the referee.

Mourinho’s assistant Rui Faria said of the latest incident: “I think everyone saw his frustration was shown in a situation that should be a free-kick for us and finishes with a yellow card for Paul and out of the next match.

“There is a reason to express some frustration. After that, things that are part of the game and the referee took a decision. But it comes everything from that. I think everyone saw. It is part of the game. It was the referee’s decision.”

Faria may have been alluding to the view that Pogba might have won a free‑kick earlier in the same incident. Moments before, Ander Herrera was adjudged to have fouled Dimitri Payet when the latter player appeared to receive no contact and this also infuriated Mourinho.

Yet whether any of this proves a mitigating circumstance for the Portuguese manager may depend on Moss’s match report, which the FA is expected to receive no later than within the next 48 hours and which may be as early as some time on Monday.

Faria did not directly answer a question about Mourinho’s demeanour at the interval but said: “No, I didn’t comment about it. We just spoke about things that were important to happen for the team in the second half, any adjustments that we needed to do, and we just focus on that. We didn’t focus on what happens with the sending-off.”

Slaven Bilic, West Ham’s manager, said: “I don’t know if he deserved to be sent off, I don’t know the rules. I don’t like any manager – especially him – to be sent off. It is hard to judge from our angle if it is a dive or a foul so I can understand it but I don’t want him to be sent off. I have seen him. We didn’t talk about the mood but he is a gentleman. I like him.”