Turkish Football Federation bans Mourinho for Turkiye referee comments

The Turkish Football Federation announced that Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho has been banned from four matches and fined due to his comments after his team, Fenerbahçe, tied with its rival Galatasaray in the Turkish league.

Galatasaray accused the Portuguese coach of making “racist comments” after the goalless draw between the two rivals in Istanbul on Monday in the 25th round of the league.

Mourinho’s comments included him saying: “After the big dive in the first minute and their bench jumping like monkeys on the top of the kid… with a Turkish referee you would have a yellow card after one minute and after five minutes I would have to change [substitute] him.”

He also criticised Turkish referees, who were not present at this sensitive match between the two rivals. Instead, according to reports, the match was refereed by Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic after the two clubs requested a foreign referee.

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Galatasaray confirmed in a statement that it would start criminal proceedings against the 62-year-old coach, noting that: “Since the beginning of his managerial duties in Turkiye, Fenerbahçe coach Jose Mourinho has consistently made insulting statements against the Turkish people.”

The club added that Mourinho’s statements have escalated from immoral comments to unequivocally inhumane rhetoric. Therefore, it officially announced its intention to initiate criminal proceedings regarding the racist remarks made by Mourinho and will lodge formal complaints with UEFA and FIFA.

Fenerbahce, who are second in the league, six points behind leaders Galatasaray, responded to their rivals’ accusations on Tuesday, saying the coach’s comments were: “Deliberately taken entirely out of context and distorted in a misleading manner.”

The club added that anyone with common sense can see and understand that the words used by Mourinho to describe the over-the-top reaction of the opposing team’s technical staff cannot be considered racist in any way.

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