Football Disgraces Itself Once Again

[andy-hughes]

The news reaches us that Doctor Eva Carneiro has been paid an advised £5million pounds to avoid her publicising the evidence she has against her former employer, Chelsea Football Club.

The club's laughable were it not so offensive, defence is to nit-pick about exactly which offensive term Manager Mourinho used against his colleagues - did her call her a 'daughter of a ***', which could be deemed sexist, or merely a 'son of a ***' - which appears to be offered as acceptable footballing parlance.

So a football club employs a QC at a four-figure-per-hour sum to defend its manager's use of offensive language to a colleague, with the breath-taking premise that the fine line between '***' and '***' was not crossed. Fine, no surprise there.

In common with modern football, the approach of the Neanderthal unreconstructed hierarchy at Chelsea's HQ was to hope the silly little woman would go back in the kitchen if they threw some money at her - heaven knows they have as much as that as have little morality, or simple adult courtesy and manners.

But hang on! What's going on! The girlie hasn't gone away, she's gone to court, and we have to show up and argue there, Oh No!!

But don't worry, we'll throw even more money at her to prevent the serious embarrassment of being exposed as serial misogynists and lousy individuals.

Of course, or ex-manager won't pay a penny, and we can't compel him to do what he should do simply as a mature adult, and apologise for his appalling behaviour - so he can trot off to his other multi-million pound job as another club manager, with his usual turd-in-his-y-fronts face on.

Football does not come out of this with any dignity whatsoever - and once again, the message to Premier League clubs and players is - if your behaviour is atrocious, throw some money, and it will go away.

Your thoughts? Media URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36472713
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[andy-hughes]

mushroom ////why did Chelsea sack him?//

because it was obvious to everybody by that point in the season that he couldn't deliver a place in the next champion's league, with consequent loss to the club of between EUR50m and EUR100m. simple economics really. //

Thanks for that.

Not such a 'Special One' then - even at the job he is paid such a ludicrous sum of money to fail at - never mind being a decent human being!

[agchristie]

/why did Chelsea sack him?

Chelsea's campaign faltered to an unthinkable extent that the club weren't far off the bottom three.

Things clearly weren't working on a number of levels. Striker Costa wasn't scoring, other players were underperforming and Mourinho had lost the dressing room.

Hiddink arrived as coach, Costa started scoring, win rate improved etc but the coach was given far too much to do to secure a Champions League place.

Completely different to Mourinho's first spell in charge when Chelsea did not lose at home. Last season was a lamentable defence of a league title.

[agchristie]

First para ending *** at one point***

[Togo]

Eva Carniero became one of the first, if not the first female Team Doctor in top flight league football. She was not attuned to the nuances involved with time remaining during play, her duties to the club, and her duties as a physio and PR exercise. She has her "payout", how many other better qualified women will be denied their chance because of her. Aaahh bless.

[DaisyNonna]

Misogyny is alive and flourishing!

[douglas9401]

Shurely Ms ogyny.

[Svejk]

That'll stop them employing female doctors then.

[-Talbot-]

Reading this thread you would think that had it been a bloke that ran on the pitch Mourinho wouldn't have raised an eyebrow.

[Peter Pedant]

// She was not attuned to the nuances involved with time remaining during play, her duties to the club, and her duties as a physio and PR exercise.//

Luckily Togo when you are involved in an emergency
and the doctor is bending over you saving your life or something
and you hear a voice of a jobsworth saying " you cant do that to him there, you cant. workplace rules say ....its more than my job is worf...gerroff him"
You will hear the doctor say yes I can actually

[-Talbot-]

Yeah it did look like Hazard was going to meet his maker unless he got immediate medical attention

[campbellking]

Togo, she'd been the club's first team doctor for several years, including duties at the Champions League final so hardly not attuned 'to the nuances of first team football'. Mourinho was equally critical of the male physio who ran onto the field of play, so can't see how you can blame the fact she's female that she came onto to treat someone. The medical staff have a duty of care to assess people requesting treatment, the male referee requested their presence on the pitch, so all they did was fulfil their obligations. If the male player cannot accurately determine whether he needs treatment , then you cannot be offensive to anyone who comes onto assess them.

[Hoppy208]

Five million pounds? That is insane. Five MILLION pounds?

[andy-hughes]

Togo - //Eva Carniero became one of the first, if not the first female Team Doctor in top flight league football. She was not attuned to the nuances involved with time remaining during play, her duties to the club, and her duties as a physio and PR exercise. She has her "payout", how many other better qualified women will be denied their chance because of her. Aaahh bless. //

If you examine the circumstances of the incident, and what followed - aside from Mourinho's appalling attempts to justify his oafish behaviour by trying to infer that he used an 'acceptable' expression when swearing at the Doctor - you will see that gender does not come into it.

[andy-hughes]

Hoppy - //Five million pounds? That is insane. Five MILLION pounds? //

The media are making much of the 'reward' for being sworn at.

Of course, they are entirely missing the point.

The five million pounds was not to salve the doctor's injured feelings, it was to stop her revealing just what a horrible environment Chelsea football club is, and what an atrocious individual their manager was / is.

For the owner, it would be the equivalent of dropping 10p into the Starbucks cup of a homeless man.

So yes, it is a serious amount of money - but don't let's lose sight of why Chelsea were willing to do a deal in the court corridor - before any more revelations were trotted into the pubic domain.

[Peter Pedant]

// but don't let's lose sight of why Chelsea were willing to do a deal in the court corridor - before any more revelations were trotted into the pubic domain.//

yes we have lost sight of why Chelsea allowed this to get to court ( day one only of course ) instead of settling it all weeks before

and it cant have been unexpected - chelsea had all its witnesses lined up and ready to go...

[Peter Pedant]

// Yeah it did look like Hazard was going to meet his maker unless he got immediate medical attention//

hmm done a lot of resusc in cas have you ?

with a name like Johnnie Hazard he sounds like a walking danger area or something

[andy-hughes]

Peter Pedant - //// but don't let's lose sight of why Chelsea were willing to do a deal in the court corridor - before any more revelations were trotted into the pubic domain.//

yes we have lost sight of why Chelsea allowed this to get to court ( day one only of course ) instead of settling it all weeks before

and it cant have been unexpected - chelsea had all its witnesses lined up and ready to go... //

Indeed, Chelsea no doubt had their witnesses ready to go ...

and then the good doctor's lawyer turned up and said something like - "When we get in there, she is going to say this, and this, and this, backed up by text and e-mails ... would you like to negotiate gentlemen?"

which Chelsea, with the typical God-complex evidenced by their then-manager will not have even thought about - sudden attack of cold sweats, a quick call to Russia, and hey presto - sorted!

[agchristie]

I was in Dumbarton in the late nineties one Saturday and was invited by the football club to watch them play Stenhousemuir.

During the match a Stenny player was injured and the physio, who was female, ran onto the pitch to the jeers of the home fans. I cannot repeat what I heard.

I've even heard a female paramedic being abused when treating an elderly man who fell in the road. Neither of her two male colleagues were incidentally.

[andy-hughes]

AG - sexism is alive and well in football, and while media pundits (usually men, what a surprise!) scoff at incidents like this, saying the doctor should accept being sworn at as par for the course / the manager swears at everyone / part of the modern game ... and so on ad nauseum - this kind of disgraceful behaviour will carry on.

This was a professional - a graduate with letters after her name - being waved onto the field of play by the referee, and complying as per the rules of the game, and then being sworn at, publicly humiliated, and forced out of her job - and then being ridiculed for having the temerity to not go away quietly, but fight for vindication.

And let's be clear here - it is the vindication and apology - albeit wrung kicking and screaming from Chelsea - that is the real victory here, for professionals of both genders.