Football news - FA launches appeal after Jose Mourinho cleared of misconduct charge
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Updated 07/11/2018 at 14:52 GMT
The Football Association has appealed against an Independent Regulatory Commission’s decision to clear Jose Mourinho of a misconduct charge.
Jose Mourinho
Image credit: PA Sport
The Commission found that an FA charge against Mourinho for “allegedly using language which was abusive and/or insulting and/or improper” was not proven, following comments made by Mourinho at the end of the Premier League match between Manchester United and Newcastle on October 6.
But the FA has now announced it will appeal against the decision as it seeks punishment for Mourinho - with a possible touchline ban in the offing.
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jose Mourinho
Image credit: Eurosport
An FA statement read:
Having carefully considered the Written Reasons of the Independent Regulatory Commission relating to the case involving José Mourinho, it will be appealing the decision.
United won the game at Old Trafford 3-2 having gone 2-0 down to Newcastle in the first half. Media reports prior to the match had incorrectly said Mourinho would be sacked whatever the result of the game, and the stirring nature of United's comeback, sealed in injury time by Alexis Sanchez, made for a highly-charged context.
This context is acknowledged in the written reasons for the Commission's decision to find the FA charge against the Manchester United manager not proven.
The written reasons also detail how the FA's linguistic expert Pedro Xavier says Mourinho twice used the phrase "Vós sois uns filhos da puta” - translating to "sons of a whore" and explaining that the phrase is, "highly offensive, especially if the people involved are not close. Among friends (normally men) it can occur as a joke or a teaser. In a professional context it is absolutely offensive.”
The Commission's written reasons then go on to state:
In reply to the charge, JM served his own expert report from Simao Valente, an Assistant Professor at the University of Lisbon and an expert in the Portuguese language, including colloquialisms. Mr Valente interpreted the words used by JM to be 'Vão levar no cu, filhos da puta', repeated twice. He translated these words to mean 'Go take it in the a**e, sons of the whore' in the literal sense, and 'F*** off you sons of b*****s' or 'F*** off you a***holes' as an idiomatic translation.
The Commission ruled against the FA, deciding that the context of the comment was important, and that the FA expert had failed to prove that the words Mourinho used were in themselves were abusive, insulting or improper.
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Jose Mourinho
Image credit: PA Sport
"We find that JM was celebrating victory without aiming the words at anyone in particular. His words were inaudible," the Commission explains, going on to add: "we accept Mr Valente’s evidence that a typical person fluent in Portuguese colloquialisms would not feel insulted or offended from what they saw or interpreted from the footage, rather would understand JM to be very happy about something good that had just happened to him against all odds."
In this case, JM was celebrating victory following a significant and dramatic conclusion to the game, without aiming the words at anyone in particular, the comments were inaudible, said in another language, and even if a Portuguese speaker could decipher what was said by lip reading, this translated to 'f*** yeah' or 'hell yeah' which we find is not improper in the context and manner in which it was said. We do not consider JM’s language constituted abusive or insulting or improper act so that it was in breach of FA Rule E3, therefore on the balance of probabilities the charge is unanimously not proved.
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