Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid's Portuguese manager, has been handed a five-game European ban, one of which is suspended, for his conduct during and comments after the Champions League semi-final against Barcelona, Uefa have confirmed.
The ban, meted out by the governing body for European football, comes following comments made by Mourinho in the immediate aftermath of his side's 2-0 defeat to Barcelona in their Champions League semi-final first leg at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on April 27.

Mourinho will now miss the next three games he manages in Europe having already served a one-match ban in Real's 1-1 draw at the Nou Camp on Tuesday, while the fifth match is suspended for a probationary period of three years.

The controversial Portuguese has also been fined €50,000 by Uefa's control and disciplinary body, while the club itself have been fined €20,000 for the "the improper conduct of their supporters".

The club, in a statement, said: "Real Madrid CF considers this resolution still suffers from the same defects found at the start of the disciplinary case, which made it impossible for our coach to use his right to defend himself, since the exact statements for which the disciplinary case was opened are still unknown.

"Real Madrid CF will appeal this decision before the Uefa appeals body
Mourinho had claimed that Barcelona enjoyed a form of "power" over opponents.

“Each semi-final always brings the same,’’ said Mourinho of Barcelona. “We're talking about a fantastic football team. So why? As a match strategy we were not going to lose.

“I don't know if it’s the advertising for Unicef. I don't know if it's Uefa. Congratulations for a wonderful football team. It must be difficult to get this power. They have managed to get this power. No-one else has any chance really. Arsène Wenger. Today myself. I don't understand why. I hope one day I will find the answer.”

Mourinho's comments not only angered Barcelona, but also former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon.

"I think what he did in terms of talking about Uefa and referees is not acceptable at all. It doesn't match with Real Madrid's history," said Calderon.

"I assume that he's a very, very good manager, but talking like that has been harmful for Real Madrid."

Barcelona reserve goalkeeper Jose Pinto, who was red-carded following an altercation at half-time at the Bernabéu, has been given a three-game ban.

Mourinho and Real have three days to lodge an appeal with Uefa.

John Obi Mikel is a shock target for Arsenal Football Club.

Roman Abramovich is being heavily tipped to shake up the Chelsea squad when the window reopens, despite the Blues pushing Manchester United all the way for the title.

This means a number of current first team players are sweating over their futures, and Mikel is one of many who has been linked with a possible exit.

The 24-year-old has started 26 times in the Premier League this season, and Fans FC understand Arsene Wenger is monitoring his situation.

Whether the Blues would sell the midfielder to a rival club remains to be seen, and as he is under contract until 2014, they would demand a fee of around £15million.
This would be something of a surprise for a number of different reasons. Firstly it is plausible that Nigerian interantional John Obi Mikel would be considering his Chelsea future having seen his first team opportunities limited by the arrival of Ramires from Benfica but would Carlo Ancelotti or Roman Abramovich allow the 24 year old to join an arch rival? Seems unlikely.

The former Lyn Oslo midfielder did of course something of a stir when he turned his back on Man United after having seemingly already signed for the Old Trafford club, however the determined tackler has since become a crucial player at the club but some sources seem to believe Ancelotti is willing to hand his role to Brazilian international Ramires next term leading to speculation about Mikel’s future.

That said, Mikel has been in excellent form of late and his resurgence has correlated with the Blues recent good run of results that has made the West London side genuine title contenders again.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger could do with some added steel in his midfield but Alex Song has done a solid job when called upon but back-up Denilson has been poor this term.

The Gunners manager is reportedly considering a big shake-up at the club with the likes of Emmanuel Eboue, Manuel Almunia, Gael Clichy, Nicklas Bendtner and Andrei Arshavin linked with exits.

Real Madrid attacker Cristiano Ronaldo has slammed referee Frank De Bleeckere for giving Barcelona ‘preferential treatment’ in their clash.

De Bleeckere ruled out a Gonzalo Higuain goal early in the second-half of the Champions League semi-final second leg, which ended 1-1 for a 3-1 aggregate win to Barcelona.

Ronaldo was deemed to have fouled Javier Mascherano in the build up to Higuain’s strike, with video replays showing Barca defender Gerard Pique making contact with the Portuguese star moments before he crashed into Mascherano’s legs.

De Bleeckere penalised Ronaldo for bringing down Mascherano, and Higuain’s goal was disallowed.

“The team is sad, but we knew it was an uphill battle,” Ronaldo said on Real’s official website.

“The name of the match is ‘Mission Impossible IV’. Once again, it was the referee that didn’t allow us to dictate the outcome. We knew we could beat Barca, but the referee didn’t let us.”

“Higuain’s goal was good. Pique pushed me and I landed on Mascherano. He didn’t used to fall to the ground in England, but he’s picked up the bad habit of doing it here like everyone else.”

Ronaldo echoed team-mate Xabi Alonso’s criticism of the red card handed to Pepe in the first leg of their semi-final at the Bernabeu, using the decision as proof UEFA referees guided Barcelona into the Wembley final.

“The referee in the first match took away our chances of playing the final. Whoever knows anything about football knows that Barcelona get preferential treatment. We knew something would happen. We knew that if we scored a goal that everything would be done to keep us from going through,” Ronaldo said.

“This isn’t good for football. We should just stay home and allow Barcelona to play alone if things don’t change. Barcelona have a lot of power off the pitch. We would have drawn 0-0 without the Alves incident (Pepe’s red card) and tonight’s draw would have seen us through.”

“There are no differences between the teams as was seen throughout the four matches. We won the Copa del Rey (against Barca) by playing fairly. I don’t feel that Barcelona were better than us, but rather that they have a lot of help from the referees.”

Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola refused to be drawn into a war of words with opposite number Jose Mourinho after his side put one foot in the Champions League final with a 2-0 win over Real Madrid.

Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho shake hands before kick-off.
GettyImages / LluisGenePep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho shake hands before kick-off.

Guardiola was asked if he had a reaction to Mourinho's post-match rant about the referees and Barcelona, but simply said: ''I have nothing to say''.

The manager instead preferred to talk up the value of his side, as they overcame a hostile crowd to beat the ten-men of Real on home turf.

"We came here with 12 players coming from our youth academy, we're proud of that fact," Guardiola said. "We corrected some things we did bad in the Cup [Copa del rey] final."

''We played a very good game, team was very aggressive, we won a lot of duels, [Seydou] Keita helped us a lot. We're now 90 minutes away from Champions League final and we're trying to get there.''

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique claimed that his side were better and were spurred on by the fact that Madrid did now want to attack.

''We fought well and had a good result. Now it is up to the second game,'' he said. "It's always the same, they [Real Madrid] didn't want to play at football, at their own stadium. They play at the limit of violence. If you play with fire, you can end up burning.''

Xavi maintained that Barcelona deserved to win and that Pepe deserved his red card for his tackle on Javier Mascherano.

"I just want to talk about football. There will always be decision from referees that will be talked about. Sometimes they go against you and sometimes they go in your favour. It was clear to see for everybody that Pepe's dismissal was a correct decision," Xavi told Marca.

"We got the result that we deserved. We were again superior. We're a team that wants to play attacking football and have fun on the pitch. They [Real Madrid] are just hoping that we'll make mistakes. That worked in the Copa del Rey final, but not this time.

"I don't want to talk about [Jose] Mourinho. I only want to discuss Barcelona. We put in a good performance and it's a fair result. This is a victory for football."