
The
campaign group Women in Football will continue to apply pressure on the
Football Association to take action over Jose Mourinho's confrontation with
Eva Carneiro.
The FA cleared Chelsea manager Mourinho on Wednesday night of making
discriminatory comments towards club doctor Carneiro during the match with
Swansea City.
Mourinho criticised Carneiro for going on to the pitch to treat midfielder
Eden Hazard. Carneiro has since parted company with the club.
There had been suggestions Mourinho had used abusive language towards
Carneiro but the FA, after analysing audio footage of the incident, revealed
it "is satisfied that the words used do not constitute discriminatory
language under FA Rules".
Women in Football co-founder Anna Kessel disagrees with the FA's findings
and her organisation are refusing to drop the matter.
"I don't think we can leave it there. There is such injustice and there are
so many concerning questions," she told Sky Sports News HQ. "Not only from a
gender point-of-view or a Women in Football point-of-view, but from all
aspects of this case. It is impossible to let it go. There are serious
questions for the governing bodies to answer here.
"I think it is really important for the focus to switch from Eva Carneiro
herself as an individual to the governing bodies and what they intend to do
about this situation.
"When the governing bodies come out and fine, for example, Rio Ferdinand for
an inappropriate tweet, or fine Jose Mourinho last season £25,000 for
talking about a 'campaign' against the club, those things are important for
upholding the values of the game, yes.
"But we are talking about the life and death of players, the integrity of
medics, we're talking about respect for match officials - how can all that
be ignored? It's impossible to understand.
"If a woman goes to work to do her job and she is highly respected and very
senior and this can happen to her… then what can happen to everyone else?
Eva Carneiro is an outstanding medic. I think it sends a very, very worrying
message to women who are in the industry and women who might be considering
working in football."
She added: "It's implausible how the governing body is deciding not to take
any action over any aspect of this situation."
Women in Football have been invited to meet with the FA so they can discuss
how the governing body reached its conclusion.
Kessel said: "We are pleased that the FA has asked us to meet with their
investigations department to go through the process as to how they reached
this conclusion and we would like to see all the evidence they looked at.
"But I would also stress that this situation is not just about his rant on
the touchline on that day - there are much, much wider implications. And
when we wrote to the FA and the Premier League we stressed all of those
aspects.
"We are talking about medical ethics, we are talking about the safety of
players, employment rights and the integrity of the game. So there are many
facets of the game which the governing bodies need to consider."