Jose Mourinho Denies Misconduct Charge for Sarcastic Comments Made After Sunderland Defeat

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has denied an FA charge of misconduct and requested a non-personal hearing in relation to his post-match criticism of match officials following the loss to Sunderland.

Mourinho saw Gus Poyet's side awarded a decisive penalty in their 2-1 win Stamford Bridge on 19 April and directed his anger at referee Mike Dean in a sarcastic evaluation of his performance.

A statement from the FA read: "Jose Mourinho has denied an FA charge and requested a non-personal hearing in relation to comments he made following Chelsea's game against Sunderland on April 19, 2014.

"It is alleged that Mourinho's post-match comments constitute improper conduct, in that they call into question the integrity of the referee appointed to the above fixture (Mike Dean) and/or the integrity of Mr Mike Riley, general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited, and/or the comments bring the game into disrepute.

Mourinho was incensed when Cesar Azpilicueta was judged to have fouled Jozy Altidore eight minutes from time as Fabio Borini, on loan from Liverpool, stepped up to convert the penalty to give his side a valuable victory.

"Mike Dean's performance was unbelievable and when referees have unbelievable performances it's fair to congratulate them," Mourinho said following the game.

"He came here with one objective, the objective to make a fantastic performance and he did that.

"Congratulations to Mike Riley, because he's the referees' boss, and what they are doing during the whole season is fantastic, especially in the last couple of months, especially in matches involving the teams that were in the title race - it's absolutely fantastic."

Chelsea assistant manager Rui Faria was also charged with two counts of misconduct after he had to physically restrained by Mourinho and Chelsea's backroom team as he berated Dean and fourth official Phil Dowd.

Following Sunderland's win in west London, a game which saw the relegation threatened Black Cats bring an end to Mourinho's 77-match unbeaten home run in the league, Blues midfielder Ramires was also handed a retrospective four match ban.

The Brazilian was caught on video lashing out at Seb Larsson and will miss the rest of Chelsea's Premier League campaign in addition to the first game of the 2014/15 season.