Monday 23 December 2019 15:15, UK
Tottenham have appealed the red card issued to Heung-Min Son in Sunday's 2-0 loss to Chelsea.
Son was sent off following a lengthy VAR review after he appeared to kick out in frustration at Antonio Rudiger with Spurs already 2-0 down to their London rivals.
The South Korea international now faces a three-match ban but Spurs boss Jose Mourinho hopes the decision is overturned.
"I don't think it was a red card," Mourinho said ahead of the Boxing Day visit of Brighton.
"I think VAR is to support football, to bring truth to the spectacle of football and yesterday they did that with the penalty decision [which went against Spurs in the first half].
"And they killed the game with the Son decision. I hope Son is not punished five times.
"One time was the foul that Rudiger did on him. The second he was sent off. The third would be not to play against Brighton, the fourth would be not to play against Norwich and the fifth would be not to play against Southampton.
"I think being punished twice is enough. He doesn't need the third, the fourth and the fifth."
Mourinho went on a lengthy anti-VAR rant, suggesting it was not being implemented correctly and the VAR official - in this instance Paul Tierney - was the man refereeing the game.
"Mr Paul Tierney decides yes and Mr Anthony Taylor who was in the game, in real time, five metres from the situation, Mr Taylor decided no," he said.
"So who was refereeing the game? Not Mr Taylor. It was Mr Tierney.
"I think not a red card, VAR was to support football, to bring true football, to bring true to the spectacle and they did that with the penalty decision and they killed the game with Son's decision.
"The situation with Son, I think Mr Tierney made it wrong. It's the wrong call.
"This is England, this is the Premier League, this is the best competition in the world, with characteristics that if we change them we are killing the best league in the world."
Mourinho says the episode is an unfortunate reflection of the society we live in, while he reiterated his personal opposition to all forms of racism and discrimination.
He said: "I can repeat exactly that, I am totally, totally against racism in society and obviously against racism in my football world.
"I feel very sorry every time something happened and I will always support every decision the authorities can make.
"Society needs help. And then football is a micro-society. Do we need help? Yes. But society needs help. We need to eradicate any form of discrimination and this case we are talking about racism. Football and society needs help.
"It is happening before and I feel it is going to happen again in the future, that is the problem. What I see is an evolution in the protocol and that is fine. The players have the freedom to stop, to go to the referee, to go to their managers. This is one step and any decision that can be made by superior authorities I will support. I am anti-racist in all my areas.
"My message is it's not fair to say Tottenham fans. One Tottenham fan is not Tottenham fans. Since I have been here they have been phenomenal, home or away, phenomenal. Supporting the team, respecting the opponents."
