Jose Mourinho Hits Out at 'Powerful People Without Know-How' After Eric Dier Ban

Jose Mourinho has hit out at 'powerful people who don't have a clue' after Eric Dier was handed a four-game ban by the FA.

Dier's ban was late in coming, handed down on Wednesday for an incident in the FA Cup over four months ago, and Mourinho couldn't help but let his frustration show when he spoke to the press on a video call later in the day.

While the Tottenham manager refused to directly comment on the decision to ban Dier – insisting 'If I answer I'm going to be in trouble, and I don't want to be. So I have no comments about that' – he did speak more generally about the protection that players get compared to fans.

"I think we have to be in love with the game, and to be in love with the game you have to be in love with the good things and the bad things. Players are human, coaches are too, we have feelings. We don't like to lose, and in our case as managers more than players, every defeat puts a manager in a very difficult situation. It's a difficult job, but we love it.

"My feeling is that with the majority of the cases, football is not protected by the people who are powerful, and don't belong to this world. That's simply my feeling. Powerful people that don't belong to the tribe. They don't have the feelings, they don't have the know-how and it's very difficult to lead something when you don't have a clue about the world that you are leading."

He also revealed that the fan who Dier leapt into the stands to confront had apologised to the Spurs defender in person, saying: "He had the opportunity to understand that we are very well paid but we are not robots, we have families and friends that support us in the stadiums. It was a good opportunity for that fan to turn his profile and become a different fan."

Dier was given an unprompted character reference by England manager Gareth Southgate at the FA hearing and, asked if that showed something of his player's qualities, Mourinho said: "He's a top level boy, he's one of these guys who looks older than he is, the way he thinks.

"And not because he speaks perfect Portuguese, but our communication is so so easy. He's a young guy with a lot of potential, and part of his football quality is that he's a young guy with a lot of potential. To choose somebody to be the face of this decision, I think he's the wrong guy."

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