Jose Mourinho angry with ‘unprofessional’ postponing of Spurs vs Fulham
The match was called off less than three hours before Wednesday's 6pm kick-off
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Jose Mourinho has spoken of his unhappiness at the handling of Tottenham's late postponement against Fulham was "unprofessional".
The match was called off less than three hours before Wednesday's 6pm kick-off by the Premier League after an outbreak of coronavirus in the Fulham camp.
"I don't want to speak too much about it," Mourinho said. "Just to say I felt unprofessional, but that is the way it was.
"We were preparing ourselves for that match and of course we didn't play and that is disruptive of what is a week of work.
"Training sessions before that would be different if we were going to play that game.
"People say good for me that there was no game, but only good for me if I knew there was no game."
Mourinho believes even with all of the postponements the season will still be classed as fair, but says it started in the wrong manner, with Manchester City and Manchester United missing the first round of matches.
"It's a special season with special circumstances," he said. "We have to say its going to be fair because if not it's better not to be involved.
"I believe that even from before the season started, it started immediately in the wrong way. Because to start the season with two clubs having a match in hand, it's immediately a wrong start.
"The season started in September and only in the last week of December we were informed about when these two matches were going to be played.
"Now it's about many other matches, or a few more.
"There are lots of things that are not right. But it is what it is, it's what it's possible to have. When you say it's fair or not fair, we have to say it's fair."
Mourinho took to social media shortly before Wednesday’s postponement posting a video showing the Spurs staff and players in their closed environment setting, waiting for kick-off time to approach - yet not knowing if they’ll actually be playing or not.
However, it was confirmed a short while later that the game was indeed postponed.
That was of little comfort to Mourinho who was clearly irked by the delay in confirmation, saying: "Match at 6 pm... We still don’t know if we play. Best league in the world."
Tottenham sit seventh in the Premier League ahead of their meeting with Leeds United on Saturday while Fulham could move out of the bottom three with a win at Burnley on Sunday.
PA
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments