The Chelsea Football Club is one of the oldest and most revered teams in all of England. Over the years, the club has seen massive success and is still the only British club to have ever won all three main UEFA club competitions. Now the team has found itself in some hot water thanks to the conduct of its management.
The English Football Association announced on Wednesday that it has filed charges against a player and two managers on the Chelsea Football Club. Chelsea midfielder Ramires, assistant manager Rui Faria and manager Jose Mourinho were all called out due to conduct observed during the team’s match against the Sunderland Association Football Club on Saturday.
First up, the UEFA says that it has charted Ramires with violent conduct following a video that appeared after the game showing Ramires striking Sunderland’s Sebastian Larsson. Since the incident was not caught during the game, the UEFA had to assemble a three-man panel of former referees to determine if his actions were indeed violent. The panel affirmed unanimously that Ramires’ actions were violent and now he has until 6 p.m. Thursday to respond to the charge.
While Ramires’ actions weren’t caught until after the game, the team’s management was caught red handed while the game was still in session. Faria has been charged with two counts of misconduct following his alleged use of “abusive and/or insulting words” towards the Fourth Official during the game. Faria was then asked to leave the technical area and his actions upon being asked to leave amounted to another charge of misconduct. Faria has until 6 p.m. April 28 to respond to the charges.
For those curious, the moment when Faria gets thrown out of the game has been caught on video:
Finally, Mourinho has been charged with one count of misconduct following comments he allegedly made about the game officials after the match was over. After losing the game against Sunderland, it’s alleged that Mourinho called the referee’s integrity into question.
Here’s the interview in which Mourinho made the sarcastic comments about the referee:
Even the team’s Twitter account was sour about the call that cost them the game:
Full time and it finishes 2-1 to Sunderland, Borini's controversial penalty sees the visitors take the points. #CFCLive
— Chelsea FC (@chelseafc) April 19, 2014
So, what could have caused this sudden outbreak of misconduct charges against the Chelsea Football Club’s management? Well, one possible theory is that its loss against Sunderland was the first home loss after 77 home wins against them. It’s more likely, however, that the team responded similarly to how most teams respond to what they perceive as a bad call – poorly.
Finally, here are all the highlights from Saturday’s game:
Image via Wikimedia Commons
