Mourinho: The Real Enemy of Football

Real Madrid and Barcelona are becoming dangerous. Pep Guardiola knows it. Gerard Pique knows it, though he ascribes the blame more to one side. Journalists know it - they know that violence on the pitch will have the inevitable consequence.

But Jose Mourinho lurches on, like an enraged alcoholic destroying his own hallway; gouging eyes, spitting insults, muttering conspiracies, dragging the game down to his own embittered level. He cannot yet counter Barcelona and the failure must not be his. It was the ball boys that lost a game where Barcelona enjoyed 70 percent of possession. It was the diving from Barcelona that forced him to gouge an eye, and then smirk about it.

The "Enemy of Football" enjoys little respect throughout the world game. I would guess that his only friends are the former players who he shielded from controversy, while encouraging them to give up all in the pursuit of victory. On the other side, Guardiola is no angel and in my previous post I lament the level that Pedro, Alves and others have sunk to in their mindless pursuit of victory. I am no partisan Barcelona supporter and it's clear that no players should leave the bench to pick a fight with a player on the pitch, as Barcelona did.

But if both sides do not calm down some idiot will leave a Classico, see a fan from the other side and murder them. He might not wait for the game to end. The imagination of the hooligan knows few bounds.

He'll say that he was following the example of his heroes, sticking up for his club, and that the other guy provoked him and deserved it. His behaviour will follow the same logic as Mourinho's, as Marcelo's, as Villa's, and on and on it goes.

Both sides will wring their hands. The clubs will say the killer was no "true fan", and the teams will probably show a modicum of restraint in the next match. They will wear black armbands. Then it will be back to normal.

At least Guardiola has recognised this. But Mourinho rages, attacking the ball boys, the diving Barcelona players, attacking, attacking, never acknowledging that gouging a person's eye is universally despised behaviour.

It is staggering that a proud club like Real Madrid will not sack a manager who has brought their club into disrepute. It is sad that the Spanish FA lacks the power and will to take strong action, though their history of acting for the good of the game is particularly discouraging.

It is tragically pathetic that it will probably take a death to stop this tiresome, depressing devolution of what should be the game's premier clash - a meeting of two proud clubs, of Messi and Ronaldo, of Xavi and Kaka, of sumptuous talents and tactics and trickery.

The troubling thought is that football's classic match has been so corrupted that both clubs would probably continue their death roll regardless of such a crime. After all, the pursuit of power in a world of sport is clearly more important than safety, ethics and morality. Real, Barca and the Spanish FA are shamed, whether they know it or not.