Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho decides not to appeal against stadium ban

The ban means Mourinho must stay away from the Britannia Stadium and was imposed following his half-time dismissal at West Ham last month.

The Blues boss "admitted a Football Association charge of misconduct regarding his language and/or behaviour towards the match officials in or around the dressing room area" at Upton Park and was fined £40,000 alongside the stadium ban.

Only an appeal against that penalty would have allowed Mourinho to enter the Britannia Stadium, but he has accepted the sanction.

Asked if he would appeal, Mourinho said: "No

Because the match is tomorrow and I know the result of that appeal already

I decided to give up

I don't speak about it.

"It's stupid to fight a fight that you know you have already lost."

Chelsea, the reigning champions, are 15th in the Premier League after six losses in the opening 11 matches.

Mourinho, who failed in an appeal against a suspended one-match stadium ban and £50,000 fines for comments made after the October 3 loss to Southampton, suggested he feels aggrieved at his punishment

He added: "This stadium ban is connected to words, to complaints.

"I can imagine that in the future we are going to have lots of managers with stadium bans, because the stadium bans should be related to something really serious.

"In this moment it's open for in the future the stadium ban to happen much more times, unless we have our association or other associations around Europe that question in a very serious and legal way about the rights of the managers and having stadium bans."

Asked how Mourinho plans to watch the contest, he said: "You can imagine that it's not easy

You can imagine how I feel

And I don't want to speak a lot about it.

"I have no plans

Maybe I sit in the street corner with my iPad.

"Maybe I don't even watch the game.

"To speak about it I have to go deeper, I have to go to the dimension of the situation.

"One thing is not to be on the bench

Because against West Ham the referee told me not to be on the bench in the second half, but nobody told me to leave the stadium.

"In this moment I'm stopped not just to do my work, I'm stopped from going to a football stadium."

Source : PA

Source: PA