Mourinho’s bad week just got a little better

Lucky boy

The 5-0 defeat at Barcelona was the biggest defeat he has ever experienced as a club manager. He had never before been beaten by more that three goals. He said it was just a defeat and one that he and the players would learn from and totally denied that it was a humiliation.

Humiliation

Despite what he said, there is no doubt that it was a humiliation for Real Madrid and for Mourinho. They went into the game hoping to extend their lead at the top of the table and establish themselves as the front runners for the title and as the superior of the two teams. What actually happened was they came up against one of the finest displays of football I have ever seen and had absolutely no answer for it.

I think we can all agree that as far as football is concerned, Mourinho has had a very bad week. What could have made it a lot worse was the result being announced by UEFA after their investigation into the dismissals of Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos in their Champions League win at Ajax last week. Surely if UEFA found Mourinho and the players guilty of cheating, then the punishment dished out would be catastrophic for Real Madrid.

Recap

Let us recap on what happened in Amsterdam. Madrid were four goals to the good and guaranteed to top their qualifying group. Alonso and Ramos were sent off for receiving second yellow cards for time wasting. The instructions to do so seemed to come from Mourinho via Iker Casillas and Jerzy Dudek.

The sendings off meant that both players would be unavailable for Real Madrid’s meaningless final group stage game but fully available for the first game in the knockout stages. Clever, yes, but cheating none the less.

Denied

Mourinho denied the allegations, of course, but it doesn’t take the brains of a rocket scientist to see that he was guilty of bending the rules to the limit, if not actually breaking them.

Disaster for Real Madrid, UEFA found them guilty. That would surely mean a long ban for Mourinho and the players or even removal from the competition.

Punishments

Absolutely not. The actual punishments were that Mourinho was fined £33,500 and banned for one Champions League game and Alonso and Ramos were each fined £16,700. Casillas and Dudek were both fined smaller amounts. Hardly UEFA clamping down hard on this sort of action!

I thought UEFA were silly to instigate the investigation in the first place because although what Mourinho did was wrong, it was impossible to prove and was a clever way, within the rules, to maximise his chances in the competition. However, once UEFA decided that they would investigate and found him and the players guilty of improper conduct, they had a duty to send a message that this will not be tolerated.

Precedent

In similar situations in the future UEFA will find it difficult to impose harsher punishments as a precedent has been set. What would you do? Run the risk of a fine of about £70,000 and increase your chances of making millions of pounds by progressing in the Champions League, or play by the rules and accept that you might have to field a weakened side in the knockout matches?

UEFA have made a mistake here and Mourinho knows that he has been lucky and his terrible week has just got just a little bit better.