The Chelsea Coach said.. 'I react, with disappointment'
Jose Mourinho felt ashamed by racist fans who pushed a black passenger off a metro
train in Paris and he hopes the victim will accept an invitation to watch a
game at Stamford Bridge to prove such behaviour was not a reflection of the
real Chelsea. The man, named only as Souleymane, complained to police about the
incident at Richelieu-Drouot metro station before the Champions League game
between Paris St Germain and Chelsea on Tuesday.
Chelsea have suspended three fans caught on video during the incident and said they
were working with British and French police to identify others. They have
invited Souleymane and his family to watch the return leg in March. "I
think he would watch not only the game, but he would feel what Chelsea is. At
this moment he will have the wrong idea of what Chelsea is," Mourinho told
reporters on Friday.
"He
would feel that the people who did this action with him is not Chelsea. "Chelsea
is the owner, the board, the manager, the players, the people who work here,
it's also the true Chelsea supporter. "So I would support his coming here.
Even if I don’t know if he's a football fan."
After
a strongly-worded statement from the club saying owner Roman Abramovich was
disgusted at the incident and would suspend for life any fan proven to have
taken part, Mourinho said he had not returned to London in 2013 to be connected
with such "miserable" people. "We feel ashamed but maybe we
shouldn't because I refuse to be connected with these people. I left Chelsea in
2007 and I could not wait for the moment to be back and it's not because of
people like this that I wanted to be back," Mourinho said. "I felt
ashamed when I knew what happened but I am a proud club manager because I know
what Chelsea really is."
Mourinho
said the reaction of his players in a multicultural dressing room was the same.
"This dressing room….was always a dressing room with big principles of
equality not just about race, also about religion about everything," he
said. "The dressing room reacted the way I react, with disappointment…but
always with the feeling that we do not belong to these people and they do not
belong to us."
The
club said on Friday more suspensions could follow as investigations continue
but they were not releasing any names yet.The video appeared to show fans of
the London team chanting "we're racist and that's the way we like it"
as they stopped Souleymane boarding a train.The video footage has been widely
condemned by soccer authorities including FIFA President Sepp Blatter.
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