Jose Mourinho accuses football's 'powerful people' of being clueless as Eric Dier banned by FA for four games

Jose Mourinho has accused football’s “powerful people” of being clueless, after the Football Association hit Tottenham’s Eric Dier with a four-game ban.

Defender Dier has been punished for jumping into the stands to confront a Spurs supporter at the end of his club’s FA Cup defeat by Norwich at the start of March. Apart from being suspended for four of his side’s final five games of the season, Dier was fined £40,000.

The England player was charged after he entered the stands to protect his youngest brother, Patrick, who had become embroiled in an argument with the fan.

In the written reasons for Dier’s punishment, which was announced on Wednesday, it was revealed that the supporter had called the player a “w-----” and a “f------ c---”.

Mourinho, the Tottenham head coach, did not name the FA when asked whether players received enough protection inside stadiums, but said: “My feeling is that in the majority of the cases, football is not protected by the people that are powerful and don’t belong to this world. That’s simply my feeling.

“Powerful people that don’t belong to the tribe and they don’t have the feelings. They don’t have the know-how and it’s very difficult to lead something when you don’t have a clue about the world that you are leading. We play the football that we love, the football that some people with big responsibilities sometimes don’t look like they love, but we love football.

“So I don’t want to speak about Eric Dier now because in the end I’m going to open my heart and that’s something that I do not want to do.”

While Mourinho was clearly upset with the decision that rules Dier out of Thursday night’s trip to Bournemouth and key games against Arsenal, Newcastle and Leicester, he showed a forgiving side towards the player’s abuser.

Dier was only spared a five-game ban thanks to the intervention of Gareth Southgate, the England manager, but Mourinho said the supporter who instigated the clash would be welcome back at Tottenham when fans can return.

“I want fans back,” Mourinho said. “I want fans back very much. Of course we prefer fans to support, of course we prefer fans to react, but lots of the beauty of football is the fans. I want them back. I want them back as soon as possible.

“Even that specific fan, especially because the fan had the opportunity to meet the player, had the opportunity to apologise to the player, had the opportunity to understand that we are very well paid but we are not robots.

“We are very well paid, but we have families and friends that support us in the stadiums. So I think it was a good opportunity for that fan to turn his profile and become a different fan. But no space of doubt, I want fans back.”

Asked to confirm that Dier had met his abuser, who admitted to police that he was “being an idiot” and had not felt threatened by the Spurs star, Mourinho added: “It was his own decision to do it, because the person in this case, first of all, is a Tottenham fan and was sorry about what happened.

“The way I was told, he had the dignity to want to apologise to him. It was a nice thing that, in normal circumstances, especially after saying that he never felt under threat at any moment of the situation, would be enough for a fair decision.”