The punished one – five of the best Mourinho meltdowns

Paris, France | AFP | 

Jose Mourinho is facing only the latest in a series of touchline bans after being charged with misconduct for the second time in less than a week by the English Football Association on Tuesday.

Here, AFP looks at some of the Manchester United manager’s most notable previous brushes with authorities.

Dirty laundry 

Back in 2005, less than a year after he had joined Chelsea after leading Porto to the Champions League, Mourinho allegedly hid in a laundry basket in order to pass on half-time instructions during a Champions League encounter against Bayern Munich. Match observers suggested assistant Rui Faria was using an earpiece under a woollen hat to communicate with Mourinho. Mourinho was serving a two-match UEFA touchline ban after he alleged then-Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard influenced referee Anders Frisk during a Champions League match at the Camp Nou. Frisk later received death threats and promptly retired.

– Doctors orders –

For many, the beginning of the end at Chelsea second time round was when Mourinho publicly criticised club doctor Eva Carneiro for coming onto the pitch to treat a player he did not think was injured. Chelsea, the defending champions, had made a poor start to the 2015-6 season and would fail to pull out of their nosedive, leading to Mourinho’s sacking last December after a loss at Leicester City. Carneiro would ultimately win a compensation settlement weeks before Mourinho pitched up at Old Trafford — but the issue was widely seen as being the moment he lost the dressing room at Stamford Bridge.

One in the eye 

Mourinho had several contretemps while in charge of Real Madrid in Spain — notably when he poked then Barcelona assistant coach Tito Vilanova in the eye in 2011. Mourinho jabbed Vilanova, who shoved him back, during a touchline fracas in a Spanish Super Cup encounter. The Spanish Football Federation waived punishment for both men as part of a 2012 amnesty. Mourinho later apologised for his behaviour.

Real hard times 

A further spat at Real in 2011 saw Mourinho earn a five-match UEFA ban, later reduced, and a fine for his sending-off and comments suggesting the game’s hierarchy favoured Barcelona. The scenario was only one of several. A ban and fine resulted in 2010 while he was in charge at Inter Milan, while following his return to Chelsea other bans and fines followed, including last year after he refused to leave the referee’s dressing room at West Ham United, pushing his misconduct charges in England alone to the $200,000 mark before his second Chelsea sacking.

United woes 

Mourinho is now in hot water again and facing a potential four-match touchline ban having been sent to the stands during Saturday’s goalless stalemate at home to Burnley for loudly protesting a penalty claim to earn a misconduct charge. It was his second in barely a week after he made disparaging comments about referee Anthony Taylor prior to another goalless draw away to Liverpool.