MAURICIO POCHETTINO HAS been handed a two-match touchline ban by the Football Association following his angry exchange with referee Mike Dean after Tottenham’s loss at Burnley last month.
The Spurs manager approached the official at the end of his side’s 2-1 Premier League defeat at Turf Moor and continued his tirade despite being told to walk away.
Pochettino was seemingly initially angered by a decision to award a corner from which the Clarets opened the scoring through Chris Wood, though his mood appeared to worsen by something Dean said in response.
The Argentine later apologised and accepted that he had “made a mistake”, but the FA decided to hit Pochettino with a misconduct charge that he has accepted, leading to a two-match touchline ban and £10,000 fine.
An FA statement read: “Mauricio Pochettino has been fined £10,000 and will serve a two-match touchline ban following an Independent Regulatory Commission hearing.
“The Tottenham Hotspur manager accepted an improper conduct charge from The FA, which resulted from his language and/or behaviour – both on the pitch and in or around the tunnel area – at the end of the game against Burnley on 23 February.”
Pochettino had hinted that such a ban was forthcoming when addressing the media following Tottenham’s 1-0 Champions League win at Borussia Dortmund last night, which secured a 4-0 aggregate triumph in their last-16 tie.
“I’m not going to talk, do you know why? Because you will see tomorrow [Wednesday] why I am talking, or why I don’t want to talk,” he said. “I’m very disappointed. I don’t think it’s going to change, but I don’t care. We are going to be strong.
“If we are not going to receive help from our football people in our country, only I can laugh, but you are going to see why I am not so happy with the people.”
Spurs’ setback at Burnley preceded a 2-0 defeat at Chelsea and a 1-1 draw with Arsenal in the Saturday’s north London derby, a run that has all but ended their title hopes with the gap to Premier League leaders Manchester City now at 10 points.
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