Jose Mourinho has blasted ‘outmoded’ football rules as he begins his 2023/24 Serie A campaign with Roma with a touchline ban.
The former Chelsea and Manchester United manager, who has always been in the news for controversial reasons, was absent from Roma technical area in the Serie A opener against Salernitana.
Starting a season with a touchline ban is not a good way to begin proceedings as a manager but such a development is not strange to those who have been following Mourinho’s managerial career.
With their manager absent from the touchline, Roma escaped a shock opening defeat on the knife edge against Salernitana as Italian forward, Candreva, nearly ruined it for the home side at the Stadico Olympico stadium.
Candreva canceled out Belotti’s 17th-minute strike with an uninterrupted brace in the 36th and 49th minute which turned the game on its head.
The visitors nearly ran out with a 2-1 win before Belotti bagged his brace with a 82nd-minute goal to share spoils.
The draw must have been a big relief for Jose Mourinho, who must have watched the game from afar as he usually does when serving a ban. Whether his presence would have altered Roma’s fortunes in the game is unknown.
Why Jose Mourinho starts 2023/24 Serie A season with a touchline ban
Jose Mourinho ended 2022/23 Serie A season with a win but it was all rumbles and clashes in the buildup to the end of the campaign.
Against Monza, at the Stadio Brianteo on 3 May 2023, Mourinho met his nemesis following a rancoros post match comment on the match referee.
Roma settled for a 1-1 draw with Monza but it was another difficult game characterized with on-field clashes and tensions.
Roma defender, Celik was sent off for two bookable offense in less than five minutes.
After the match, Jose Mourinho lost his cool against the match referee, Daniele Chiffi, calling him “horrible” and the worst referee he had to deal with throughout his career.
“This was the worst referee I have encountered in my entire career. He is horrible,” Mourinho fumed.
Following the rant on Chiffi, Mourinho was handed a 10-day Serie A ban, including a $54,000 fine. He missed the match against Salernitana due to the ban and will miss the next Serie A match before his 10-day suspension will expire.
Reacting to the ban, which was carried from last season to the new campaign, Jose Mourinho blasted rules allowing the application of sanctions from previous campaigns into new ones.
“Continuing with a sanction from the previous season to a new one is outmoded and old-fashioned and should be eliminated,” he said in pre-match press conference.
Mourinho is also facing a four-match ban, carried from last season, for confronting English referee, Anthony Taylor, who officiated the Europa League Final between Sevilla and Roma last season.
The former Real Madrid boss acousted Taylor at the car park after the game and called him a “f**king disgrace” after Roma lost the Europa League Final to Sevilla.
The 2023/24 season will be Mourinho’s last lap of his contract with Roma. Already, he was linked to an exit from the club towards the end of the 2022/23 season with reported interests from Saudi Arabia.
This season, Roma, who are keen on keeping the Portuguese, will hope to broker a new deal with Mourinho as he runs down the final year of his contract.
