A successful appeal by his club Fenerbahce has led to Jose Mourinho's four-match suspension being halved by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF). The Portuguese manager's fine has come down from 1.6 million Turkish lira to 558,000. (More Football News)
The 62-year-old Mourinho was punished for two separate disciplinary matters after his team's 0-0 draw in the Turkish Super Lig against local rivals Galatasaray. The match was refereed by Slovenia's Slavko Vincic after both clubs demanded that a foreign official take charge of the fixture.
But the fourth official was Turkish and Mourinho sustained his criticism of Turkish referees in his post-match presser. Mourinho will miss Fenerbahce's upcoming match against Antalyaspor, having already sat out a Turkish Cup clash against Gaziantep FK.
Earlier, the TFF said it would penalise Mourinho for "his derogatory and offensive statements towards the Turkish referee" and because he "accused Turkish football of chaos and disorder with insulting and offensive statements towards both the Turkish football community and all Turkish referees".
Fenerbahce eventually filed a lawsuit against Galatasaray for an “attack on the personal rights” of Mourinho. Galatasaray accused Mourinho of making racist comments after the Istanbul derby, saying in a statement that he had used “unequivocally inhumane rhetoric” after he referred to the opposition bench “jumping around like monkeys.”
Fenerbahce rejected the accusation and said the comments were “deliberately taken entirely out of context and distorted in a misleading manner.” The club then went further and said it had initiated legal action.
