FA call for truce

The Football Association have urged Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho to end their recent war of words.

FA chiefs today telephoned senior figures at both clubs to stress the need for the two managers to restrain their future comments after an unseemly public spat.

Mourinho had branded Wenger a “voyeur” who was supposedly obsessed with Chelsea after the Arsenal boss questioned whether the Blues had “lost a little bit of belief” with their draw at Everton and Carling Cup defeat by Everton.

Wenger responded by calling Mourinho’s comments “out of order, disconnected with reality and disrespectful“, adding that “when you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid sometimes“.

Neither manager is yet facing disciplinary action for bringing the game into disrepute but any further outbursts would almost inevitably carry the risk of an FA misconduct charge.

Above all, it is hoped that both clubs can draw a line under the squabble, just as Wenger and Alex Ferguson managed to do last season after similar interventions by the FA and Premier League.

The relationship between the two London clubs has been frosty since the Ashley Cole inquiry, together with the question marks placed by Wenger over Chelsea’s style of play and chief executive Peter Kenyon’s stated aim of eclipsing Arsenal as the capital’s leading club.

However, Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood seems to have taken the FA’s advice on board, revealing he is looking for relations to be rebuilt.

He told the Evening Standard: “I think it is best people don’t talk about individuals. For instance I don’t think I should make comments about other chairmen.

“Little personal jibes are irrelevant there is no ill feeling between the Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck, the Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon and me. We are determined to live as friends in the Premier League.”

Wenger had insisted he would not be stopped from speaking his mind, although he would be unwise to reopen the spat after tonight’s Champions League tie against Sparta Prague.

Mourinho, meanwhile, may have revealed he has been keeping a “120-page dossier” on Wenger’s perceived criticisms of Chelsea, but admitted it was “time to stop” after his own side’s Champions League defeat to Real Betis.

John Barnwell, the chief executive of the League Managers’ Association, had also urged Wenger and Mourinho to bring their “tit-for-tat” exchange to an immediate end.

Barnwell has not yet made contact with either the Arsenal or Chelsea boss, believing their Champions League commitments are more important than the spat between the pair.

“We will be making every effort to speak to them before the weekend and pointing out that it is not acceptable to have two senior managers having an acrimonious debate through the media,” Barnwell told the PA Sport.

“It is two of our senior managers – albeit terrific senior managers – having a tit-for-tat.

“The more it is in the public domain, the more the conversation will be fuelled and fired, and it is unfortunate that there are too many incidents getting headlines off the pitch when what we want are more headlines on the pitch.

“Arsene and Jose have responsibilities. I don’t expect them to shake hands but I expect them to put the thing to bed and let it rest, where it should be.

“They are both members of ours and highly respected, and we’re disappointed this has come out in the public domain.”

Although Wenger had threatened unspecified “action” against Mourinho, Mark Stephens, a partner at Finers Stephens Innocent law firm and a specialist in media law and defamation, does not believe the matter will end in the courts.

Stephens told BBC Radio Five Live: “The whole of this is starting to turn into the sort of ridiculous nonsense that we see before two heavyweight pugilists step into the ring.

“Ultimately the courts are not going to be where this ends up, I think the FA will step in to stop it.”

That has now happened. However, the onus is still on Wenger and Mourinho to restrain themselves in public – or risk the possibility of disciplinary action.