As a member of the FA’s Inclusion Advisory Board, the past few weeks have been very difficult. José Mourinho’s treatment of Eva Carneiro and Jon Fearn, respectively the Chelsea club doctor and physiotherapist, has done a huge amount of damage to the image of the game, undermined the FA’s disciplinary procedures and set back the progress being made by women in football, as well as hurting the careers of two highly respected professionals.
As one of many people trying to improve the image of the game and raise standards, I’ve found the whole saga frustrating. Carneiro has clearly suffered most as she’s lost her job simply through fulfilling her professional and medical obligations, but the negative ramifications elsewhere have been significant.
Some good people at the FA have taken a kicking after concluding that there was insufficient evidence to charge Mourinho with discriminatory behaviour, while the whole furore may also deter women from becoming involved in football, as well as discouraging clubs from employing them. A lot of people are working hard to get the game in a better place, but after the past few weeks it feels as if we’ve gone back 30 years.
As someone who was privileged to play for Chelsea for 12 years, I’m saddened that it has come to this. If what started out as a straightforward employer-employee issue had been handled differently, these negative issues would not have arisen. The biggest disappointment for me is that Mourinho doesn’t seem to have reflected on the damage he has done to his own image, the reputation of the club and, more important, the reputation of the entire game.
It wasn’t so much his explosion when Carneiro and Fearn ran on to the pitch to treat Eden Hazard that infuriated me, but his behaviour afterwards. I’ve been in situations where I’ve done things on the pitch that I’ve been mortified by, but once that happens you have to deal with the fallout.
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Not only did he fail to recognise the damage he’d caused, he didn’t show any contrition. He could easily have said: “I shouldn’t have behaved like that, but I’m dealing with it internally,” which would have mitigated some of the damage. But instead he undermined his staff further by stripping them of their first-team duties.
Last week Mourinho said that he is the best manager that Chelsea have had, but for me the question is, how do you define the best? I define it as someone who is not only successful, but who behaves and conforms to certain standards. Mourinho sets standards professionally and demands the highest standards from his players. So if he’s setting those for his players, he should deliver them himself.
I admire Mourinho for what he’s achieved at every club he’s worked at, but winning things and being the best are different things to me. Unless you show an acceptance of your mistakes and take responsibility for your actions, I question whether you are the best.
When Mourinho looks at himself in the mirror, I wonder what he sees in the reflection. Does he look and think: “I got that wrong,” or does he genuinely think he’s always right? I’d love to know, but I doubt we’ll get the answer at his next press conference.
What concerns me most, given the work I’m doing for the FA, is the impact that Mourinho’s behaviour may have throughout the whole game. We’re trying to deal with some very sensitive issues and to change the culture within football, which I’m very passionate about, not least because of the amount of abuse I received as a player, when I was subjected to slurs and innuendo about my sexuality.
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I used to get frustrated that no one offered me any support, so I’m trying to help make things better for people in the game today. I’ve experienced how difficult it can be when you’re in the vast minority, which is one of the reasons I work in this area. And I was in the minority by rumour, not by fact!
Mourinho could have reduced the fallout if he had just apologised. You can apologise for your behaviour without apologising for why you did it. Look at me. I punched my own team-mate [David Batty, while playing for Blackburn Rovers] on a football pitch, and soon admitted I was in the wrong.
I wonder if there’ll ever be a time that Mourinho accepts his responsibility to the game. I don’t doubt that he loves football. He lives it and breathes it, but has a responsibility to it as well.
If you want the rewards for being successful in football, you have to accept responsibilities. Not to never make mistakes, but to admit you’ve done wrong when you make them. I don’t think Mourinho has ever done that, a failure that has made life unnecessarily difficult for others, not least himself.
Bitter medicine at the Bridge
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August 8 Eden Hazard goes to ground late in Chelsea’s league match against Swansea City. Michael Oliver, the referee, signals for the medical team and Eva Carneiro, the doctor, and Jon Fearn, the physio, run on to the pitch. Mourinho shouts the Portuguese phrase “filho da puta” — son of a bitch — before branding the pair “impulsive and naive” for giving Hazard treatment, which left Chelsea temporarily reduced to nine men. “Whether you are a kit man, doctor or secretary on the bench, you have to understand the game,” Mourinho says.
August 11 Mourinho removes Carneiro and Fearn’s first-team responsibilities. Carneiro does not return to the club.
August 12 Jiri Dvorak, the chief medical officer of Fifa, below, denounces Chelsea’s treatment of Carneiro.
August 14 Mourinho confirms that neither Carneiro nor Fearn will be on the bench for Chelsea’s next match against Manchester City.
August 22 The FA receives a complaint that Mourinho used discriminatory language against Carneiro by calling her “filha da puta” — daughter of a whore — on the touchline against Swansea.
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September 11 Fifa says that it will draw up a new code of practice for team doctors after the controversy.
September 22 Talks between Chelsea and the Football Medical Association, representing Carneiro, break down and she leaves the club without a severance agreement.
September 30 The FA confirms that Mourinho will face no action as there is insufficient evidence of discriminatory comments, as linguistic experts were unable to confirm that he used the feminine rather than the masculine form of the Portuguese phrase.
October 1 Heather Rabbatts, an FA Board member, expresses “major concerns” over the FA’s handling of the disciplinary process.
October 2 Carneiro accuses the FA of failing to call her as a witness as part of its investigation.
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•Graeme Le Saux made 312 appearances for Chelsea and is a member of the FA’s Inclusion Advisory Board