Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed that he has chosen not to appeal his stadium ban for this weekend’s trip to Stoke City.
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The Portuguese tactician was speaking in his Friday press conference, as reported by Sky Sports, and revealed that he will accept his punishment.
Mourinho received the ban after the half-time altercation with referee Jon Moss which saw him sent to the stands in his side’s 2-1 defeat to West Ham United last month.
As a result, he will not be present at the Britannia Stadium as his players look to build on their win in midweek in the Champions League and get back on track domestically.
The reigning Premier League champions continue to languish in the bottom half of the table after collecting just 11 points from their first 11 games. However, their win over Dynamo Kiev would undoubtedly have boosted morale as they look to put a difficult period behind them and get back to winning ways in the league.
Had Mourinho opted to appeal his ban, he would have been able to take his place on the bench on Saturday. Having decided not to, he explained why.
“The match is tomorrow, I know the result of the appeal already, so I decide to give up,” he said, as noted by Sky Sports. “I think it’s stupid to fight a fight you know you will already lose.
“This stadium ban is connected to words, to complaints. I can imagine that in the future we are going to have lots of managers with stadium bans, because the stadium bans should be related to something really serious.”
Mourinho failed with an appeal against a separate charge which he picked up after the comments he made in his post-game interview after the loss to Southampton.
Meanwhile, the Blues boss also faces an individual legal claim from former club doctor Eva Carneiro who believes that he was responsible in part or in full for her departure from Stamford Bridge, as reported by the BBC.
Nevertheless, he will be buoyed by the support he has received from the supporters through a difficult time in his career and will hope that things start to turn around on the pitch.
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