Jose Mourinho is suing Galatasaray for around £42,000 over moral damages, Fenerbahce have confirmed. Galatasaray accused Mourinho of making racist statements following their goalless draw on Monday and said they intended to initiate criminal proceedings.
In his post-match comments, Mourinho said the Galatasaray bench were jumping like monkeys and that the fixture was better for being refereed by Slovenian Slavko Vincic rather than Turkish officials after both clubs requested a foreign appointment.
The 62-year-old was initially banned for four matches and fined £32,655. His suspension was halved to two games and a fine of £12,000 following a successful appeal, Fenerbahce confirmed to Sky Sports News.
Mourinho is seeking 1,907,000 Turkish Lira in damages – a symbolic amount which references 1907 as the year Fenerbahce were founded, worth around £41,500. Through the lawyers of Fenerbahce Sports Club, we announce to the public that Galatasaray Sports Club has been sued by Jose Mourinho for 1 million 907 thousand Turkish Lira for non-pecuniary damages due to the attack on the personal rights of our technical director Jose Mourinho, a statement said.
The Portuguese served one of his suspended games on Thursday night when he was absent from the bench for the 4-1 Turkish Cup win at Gaziantep – and after Fenerbahces appeal was successful he will serve the remaining one-match ban in Sundays home game against Antalyaspor.
Following the accusations of racism, former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, was among several players to come to the defence of his old boss and dad Mourinho. Former Ivory Coast international Drogba – who played for Galatasaray in 2013/14 between two different spells at Stamford Bridge, both of them working under Mourinho – used a social media post to defend Mourinho, indicating the Portuguese coach had been a father figure for him during his career.
Fenerbahce had issued their own statement on Tuesday, saying Mourinhos comments after the match were taken completely out of context and deliberately distorted, and could in no way be associated with racism.
On Thursday, the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) released decisions taken by its Professional Football Disciplinary Board, which imposed sanctions on the Fenerbahce boss for two separate disciplinary matters regarding the draw at Galatasaray.
The TFF said Mourinho came to the referees room and directed his derogatory and offensive statements towards the fourth official, who was Turkish. The Portuguese coach also accused Turkish football of chaos and disorder with insulting and offensive statements towards both the Turkish football community and all Turkish referees.
The TFF said Mourinhos actions and statements that insulted the brand value of football activities in Turkey were taken into consideration, with a decision of a two-match ban from both the dressing room and touchline as well as a fine of 117,000 Turkish lira (£2,500).
Regarding his post-match press conference comments, the TFF said: It was determined that the statements used towards the members of the opposing team, were not mandatory, were contrary to the ethics of sports and the concept of fair play, contained expressions that could encourage violence and disorder in sports, were divisive and separatist in society and could cause fan incidents, and therefore, it was deemed an act against sportsmanship.
As such, a fine of 1.5m TL (£32,655) was imposed alongside another two-match ban. Galatasaray, who lead Fenerbahce by six points at the top of the Super Lig, would add a fifth star to those already on their crest if they secure a 25th league title this season.
