Dr Eva Carneiro quits Chelsea following Mourinho outburst!

Dr Eva Carneiro has decided against a return to Chelsea Football Club, and is now expected to fight for a significant pay-off from the Premier League side.

The Times and the Daily Mail both report that the FA is investigating a complaint from a member of the public claiming Mourinho had shouted "filha da puta" - something that means "daughter of a whore" towards Carneiro during the Premier League match against Swansea City on 8th August.

New evidence regarding the incident involving Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and team doctor Eva Carneiro has been submitted to the Football Association by Women in Football (WiF).

This evidence includes video footage and a written submission from a Portuguese translator who says the coach singled out the club doctor in his outburst.

After the controversial incident with manager Jose Mourinho, Carneiro lost her place on the Chelsea bench and was not allowed to attend training sessions, matches or enter the team hotel.

Carneiro was told to report back for duty at Chelsea last Friday by the club’s hierarchy, the day before the crucial game at home to Arsenal, but decided against doing so and is understood to have now left the club.

The news has invited criticism from within the Football Association, with chair of the 'FA's Inclusion Advisory Board' (IAB) Heather Rabbatts expressing her "sadness and anger" at Dr Carneiro’s departure.

Anna Kessel, chair and co-founder of WiF, said: "We'll be extremely surprised if there is no charge at all."

Kessel also wrote in the Guardian: "One day we will look back at the story of Dr Eva Carneiro and wonder how any of this happened."

"How did a highly respected doctor have her reputation ripped to shreds despite not putting a foot wrong?"

"How did a Premier League manager lose his rag, misinterpret the facts and the laws of the game and fail to apologise? And why did no one defend her?"

"It is time now to hear from the game's enforcers, the Football Association and the Premier League. WiF urges them to step up to the plate."

"This is about medical ethics, human rights, employment rights, the integrity of the game. This is a test and we urge football not to shy away from it."

Mourinho’s heavy-handed actions have been condemned by Fifa and the medical community while Chelsea have continued to insist it is an “internal staffing matter” and have not commented throughout the case.


Mourinho had claimed that both Carneiro and Fearn could both eventually resume their duties despite his angry criticism of them – when he called them naïve and not understanding football - but, according to sources at the club, it was always expected that the doctor would leave as her position had appeared to become untenable.

Carneiro is understood to have further angered the manager when in the immediate aftermath of the incident, during the 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge, she took to the social media network Facebook to express her thanks for the "overwhelming support" she received.

Chelsea are unlikely to replace Carneiro (right) in the short-term with Dr Chris Hughes, who has worked with the academy players, continuing to sit on the bench. However it is understood the club is eventually going to use another doctor, David Porter, in the role once he has the necessary certificate to enter the field of play.

In a further twist first team physiotherapist Jon Fearn, who was also rebuked by Mourinho and demoted after also running onto the pitch, is expected to return to the Chelsea bench and has continued to work with the first-team players and also travelled to games.

Defending the doctor’s actions against Swansea, Rabbatts said last night: "Any other response would have been a dereliction of her duty and a breach of General Medical Council guidelines."

"In acting properly she was then subject to verbal abuse and public criticism and in effect demoted by her removal from the bench."


"Over the weekend WiF submitted evidence to the FA's investigation into Mourinho's comments as well as writing to Richard Scudamore, Chief Executive of the highest tier of association football in England, the Premier League.

Anna Kessel says of Carnerio: "Anyone who has met her is impressed by her professionalism, her serious nature, her commitment to helping others – both the patients she treats and the young women who write her streams of letters wanting to follow in her footsteps. She has worked at Chelsea for six years, as first-team doctor under four different managerial regimes. Surviving as a female medic in the football industry is hard enough; excelling as one is almost unheard of.

Dr Carneiro had already endured so much in her career, the horrific sexist abuse from opposition fans highlighted by the WiF campaign last season. It is sad that her ultimate downfall appears to be at the hands of the very club who once supported her and a game that so far has suggested it does not care to."

The expectation remains that no charge will be leveled, but if he is prosecuted Mourinho could be handed a five-match ban.

Sports Psychology - Dress For Success!

Sports scientists at the University of Portsmouth studied the effect a coach's appearance had on the players' impressions of their competence. Their work is published in the International Journal of Sport Psychology.

The new study led by Dr Richard Thelwell, a sports scientist at the University of Portsmouth revealed that coaches who wear suits on match days and tracksuits on training days are likelier to get the best results out of their teams.

Dr Thelwell said: "We have found that the clothing that coaches wear can have a direct effect on the players’ perceptions of the coach’s ability.

"Players look to their coach to provide technical skills, to motivate them and to lead them. A coach in a suit suggests strategic prowess which is obviously ideal for a match," he added.

"In our study, coaches wearing a suit were perceived as being more strategically competent than those wearing sporting attire. However, when wearing sporting attire, they were perceived to be more technically competent than those in a suit."

97 men and women were asked to observe and give their reactions to static photographs of four different 'coaches,' as though they had just viewed the coach for the first time and were about to be coached by them.

The four categories were as follows: a coach of lean physique and dressed in a tracksuit, a coach of large physique and dressed in a tracksuit, one of lean physique and dressed in a suit, and finally a coach of large physique and dressed in a suit.

Coaches of large build and wearing smart clothes was uniformly ranked the lowest in terms of their competence to motivate, develop technique, develop game strategy, and build athlete character.

The coach who was lean and wearing a tracksuit was rated best for 'technical and character-building abilities,' which were skills most required at training and development of players, and was rated equal best for 'ability to motivate players.'

The coach who was lean and smartly dressed was rated best as a strategist, the skill most expected and required at matches."

"First impressions can have a powerful and long-lasting effect, no matter how quickly those judgments were made," Thelwell said.

"From the research, we know that sportsmen and women make snap decisions about their opponents based on first impressions. Such impressions then often influence the expectations of the performance outcome that ultimately results in success or failure."

"In coaching it is vital a strong rapport develops between the coach and the athlete. To date, very little research has been done on what happens in those first few moments, and more importantly whether the athlete is prepared to go along with the ideals of the coach."

"While we are becoming more aware of how athletes might judge coaches, we are still unaware of the processes that athletes go through to be able to develop impressions of coaches and this is something that we are now starting to look at."

José Mourinio takes a training session.

José Mourinio in smart attire on matchday.

Article courtesy of the University of Portsmouth © 2010
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