Jose Mourinho has been banned for four UEFA games for his comments aimed at referee Anthony Taylor in the Europa League final. The Roma manager and his team repeatedly insulted the Premier League official as they were losing to Sevilla in Budapest. After the game, a video that was shared on social media showed Mourinho yelling at the officials and labelling their performance a “disgrace.”
“I must speak up for my guys, and although we are accustomed to it, it is still really difficult to witness this type of refereeing in a European championship game,” Jose Mourinho said after the Europa League final. “The match was exciting and fierce, and the referee appeared to be Spanish. The entire time, it was all yellow.”
As they traveled from the final to their house, Taylor and his family faced harassment as well. Social media videos show them being led into a secure area by airport security after fans harassed the referee following a heated final on Wednesday night. The videos posted to Twitter show objects being hurled at Taylor and his group, including a chair and a bottle. According to a statement from Budapest Airport, a guy who was charged with affray following the event had legal action filed against him.
“At AS Roma, we don’t want to cast any doubt on Sevilla’s abilities. We think that we put up a fantastic final with our opponents and did the greatest job possible of honoring the UEFA platform that was provided to us,” the club said in a statement. “We don’t generally comment on these kinds of instances, but after examining both the more obvious and the more subtle ones, it is obvious that the match’s officiating was unbalanced in terms of discipline.”
After a tense contest in which British referee Taylor issued 14 yellow cards—the highest ever in a Europa League game—and played over 30 minutes of stoppage time in total, Sevilla prevailed on penalties to hand Mourinho his first defeat in a European final. Roma was punished for “lighting of fireworks, throwing of objects, acts of damage and crowd disturbances” as well as “improper conduct of the team” during the championship with a total fine of €55,000 (£47,500) and a prohibition on selling tickets to their away fans for their subsequent game.
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