José Mourinho believes Chelsea must do everything they can to punish the supporters who racially abused a French man on the Paris Métro this week, saying he does not know if a cloud still hangs over the club following their reaction to John Terry’s racial abuse of Anton Ferdinand in 2011.
The Premier League leaders emphatically condemned the actions of a small group of fans in Paris on Tuesday night, when a 33-year-old man was subjected to racist chanting and not allowed to board a train at Richelieu-Drouot station. Chelsea have written to the victim, known as Souleymane S, and invited him and his family to attend the second leg of the Champions League tie with Paris Saint-Germain at Stamford Bridge next month. A club spokesman said that Roman Abramovich was “disgusted” at the incident – which was filmed by a British expatriate – while Mourinho said the video made him ashamed.
On Friday night Chelsea suspended another two supporters, bringing the total to five, from attending home games and will issue lifetime bans if the evidence of their guilt proves sufficient. Mourinho backed Chelsea’s stance and said he did not know if a cloud still hung over the club following the Terry-Ferdinand incident two and a half years ago.
In September 2012 Terry was banned for four matches by the Football Association and fined £220,000 for racially abusing Ferdinand, having been cleared by Westminster magistrates court of a criminal offence in July that year, after a game between Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers in October 2011. Terry was punished internally, too, following the FA judgment, although details were never made public by Chelsea.
Asked if the club’s reaction to the Terry case still left a cloud, Mourinho said: “I don’t know. The only thing I know and I know 100% for sure is that John Terry is not one single second of his life a racist, that I can assure you. He had a bad episode, I don’t know, I was not here, maybe yes. But I can assure you, and you ask every player who has shared the dressing room with John, we are talking about dozens and dozens of players, they would tell you that John is not a racist.”
Bruce Buck, the Chelsea chairman, met the Kick It Out chairman, Lord Ouseley, on Friday to reiterate the club’s commitment to anti-racism. The London club are conducting an internal investigation and sharing information with the Metropolitan police and Parisian authorities.
In the letter to Souleymane S Buck apologised for the actions of those fans responsible and invited the victim to attend the PSG return leg as a guest of Chelsea.
Mourinho said: “I think the club has to be very, very strong like they are being, I think it is the right way. The players, Chelsea fans, imagine the Chelsea owner, at the top, everybody feels disappointed. Disgusted.
“But unfortunately it will not be the last episode. It will not be the last but we have to deal with it as if it is the last. We can’t make it the last, we can’t, but we have to deal with it as we can. And especially in relation to people who have some connection with our club, if you can call it that. Everybody has to know that the club is ready to finish it. No more Stamford Bridge for them.
“I was aware [of the incident] in the same night when I arrived home. I watched the image the next day, I didn’t want to watch again, I watched only once. It is enough for me, it is sad enough for me. It is a humiliation for that gentleman, I imagine myself in that same situation, I want to go home after a day of work and a couple of guys they kick me out of my public transport. And I cannot go home. It is a humiliation. It is difficult to believe that this can happen in modern times but the reality is that it happens.”
Chelsea insisted the abhorrent actions were by a minority of supporters that “do not stand for the values of this club”. A separate Chelsea fan, Caroline Rice, has started an online fund to raise £2,000 for Souleymane S and his family to attend a game at Stamford Bridge and have their travel and accommodation paid for.
Mourinho stated that his players, who play Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday, shared his feelings of disappointment having watched the video. However, the Portuguese does not believe that all Chelsea supporters should be tainted by the incident. “I don’t remember with so many years at Chelsea,” he said. “I don’t remember street battles in some countries where we play, I don’t remember Stamford Bridge, I don’t remember outside in the street, I don’t remember bad behaviour really.
“When I was speaking about the gentleman, Souleymane, to come to Stamford Bridge, I think even if he doesn’t like football you put him in the directors’ box, people know that he’s there and people will give him a reaction that will make him realise that Chelsea is completely the opposite of what happened to him in the underground station. I look forward to him coming because I’m sure he will get a fantastic reaction by our fans, in a way where the fans can express how sad they were about it.”
Arsène Wenger shared Mourinho’s view that football, although the issue of racism is a societal and not a sporting one, has a big responsibility to challenge such discriminatory views because of the spotlight on the game. The Arsenal manager said: “Football is the most popular sport, the most public sport, the most high-profile sport in the media, and that is why we have to have a bigger responsibility. You accept that. I don’t speak for me or you. We are old enough and strong enough to think that is stupid. I speak for boys of 10 years old who see that.”
