The Football Association (FA) blasted Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho on Wednesday for his claims that Premiership rivals Arsenal received preferential treatment.
The Blues manager insinuated on Tuesday that the presence of Gunners vice-chairperson David Dein on the FA’s board has implications for Chelsea and that Arsenal have been given an easier ride with the Premiership fixture list.
The FA hit back, describing Mourinho’s comments as ”unnecessary, unhelpful, bad for the image of the game and inaccurate”, and said it will be examining them to decide what action to take.
”The FA is extremely disappointed with the comments made by Jose Mourinho to the media yesterday [Tuesday],” an FA statement said.
”At a time when the football authorities are collectively striving to improve behaviour at all levels of the game, some of those views expressed by Mourinho are unnecessary, unhelpful, bad for the image of the game and inaccurate.
”The Arsenal vice-chairman, David Dein, is one of four members of the FA board representing the FA Premier League. The four Premier League representatives are elected by the 20 member Premier League clubs (including Chelsea) to represent their views within the FA.
”We would like to state categorically that Mr Dein does not have any involvement within the FA’s disciplinary or compliance functions. It should also be made clear that he is not a member of the FA’s disciplinary committee.
”Therefore, Mr Dein does not have any input into any decisions to charge individuals or clubs with breaches of FA rules, nor in any judgement or punishment administered by a disciplinary commission.
”If any club or official has any comment or complaint to make about the role of any individual within the game, there are channels available to do this through clubs to the football authorities, not by individuals in a press conference.
”The FA is currently studying the comments made by Mr Mourinho.”
In May, Mourinho was fined £200 000 by the Premier League over the Ashley Cole tapping-up saga — Chelsea were fined £300 000 — after a complaint by Arsenal, but he insisted his club got a raw deal.
Later on Wednesday, Chelsea stepped up the war of words by issuing a statement supporting Mourinho.
”We have seen the statements issued by the FA and the Premier League in response to comments made by Jose Mourinho,” said the statement.
”We are very aware of our responsibilities to uphold the image of the game and do not want to get involved in conflict with either the FA or the Premier League; neither does Jose.
”Any concerns we might have over issues of governance within football, or other topics of debate, will be communicated through the appropriate channels.
”Our observation on the fixtures issue is purely a factual one, that we have five away matches in the Premiership following the Champions League group games.
”Over recent months there have been a series of critical comments from Arsenal about key individuals at Chelsea, and the club as a whole.
”These were not isolated incidents. Like any club, we believe we are entitled to defend ourselves publicly against such criticism, when appropriate, and are fully supportive of Jose Mourinho when he does so.” — Sapa-AFP