Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has been banned for one Champions League match for instructing players to get deliberate red cards so they could serve suspensions in a meaningless game.
Mourinho was also fined 40,000 euros (US$51,990) for instructing Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos to get sent off in last week’s 4-0 win against Ajax.
Alonso and Ramos were fined 20,000 euros. They are already suspended from Real’s next group match, against Auxerre on Dec. 8, but can now start the knockout rounds in February with a clean slate. Madrid is already sure of winning Group G.
Mourinho was also given a further one-match suspension to be imposed if the Portuguese coach is found guilty within the next three years of what UEFA calls “improper conduct.”
Mourinho had denied the accusations, but footage of the match showed him apparently sending instructions from the bench immediately before Alonso and Ramos received second yellow cards for time-wasting late on.
UEFA also fined Real Madrid 120,000 euros, while goalkeepers Iker Casillas and Jerzy Dudek were fined smaller amounts for apparently passing on Mourinho’s orders. Mourinho is likely to sit out the match against Auxerre. He and Madrid have three days to appeal against the decision.
Ramos was also banned for one Spanish league game on Tuesday after being red carded for tackling Lionel Messi from behind a day earlier in a 5-0 league defeat by Barcelona. A frustrated Ramos also shoved Spain teammates Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernandez as he left the field.
It is not the first time Mourinho has been punished by UEFA for incidents in the Champions League.
When he coached Chelsea, UEFA banned him from the touchline for two matches in 2005 after he accused Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard of visiting Swedish referee Anders Frisk at halftime in the first leg of a round-of-16 clash.
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