Mourinho invents his own VAR and gets booked in SüperLig
José Mourinho, coach of Turkish club Fenerbahçe, received a yellow card for displaying, with his laptop, the goal that the referee had just disallowed for offside during the match against Antalyaspor, local media reported on Monday.
"My analyst showed me the laptop. Our tactical camera covers the whole field, and according to the position of the left-back, we believed the goal was valid," Mourinho explained in the press conference after the match, which ended in a 2-0 victory for Fenerbahçe.
"I didn't say a single word, I didn't apply any pressure; I just placed the laptop in front of the camera broadcasting the match. There are many questionable situations in the game; I reacted calmly, but the referee decided to show me a yellow card. That's fine," added the Portuguese coach.
Fenerbahçe was leading 1-0 in the Superliga match when, in the 76th minute, Bosnian forward Edin Dzeko scored a second goal, which was disallowed by the referee for offside.
Mourinho took the laptop and showed the precise moment of the action to one of the cameras broadcasting the match to prove, in his opinion, that the goal was valid, thus improvising his own version of VAR.
Turkish media have published a range of opinions on the matter, from calls to "sack Mourinho" for disrespecting the referee's work, to more moderate views highlighting that "there are no precedents" for such a case and that UEFA and FIFA should clarify whether their rules have been violated.
