Roma manager Jose Mourinho was involved in a number of confrontations with referee Anthony Taylor during and after the Europa League final; Premier League referee Taylor was also harassed at Budapest Airport by Roma fans; West Ham fans banned for next away game in European competition
Wednesday 21 June 2023 17:45, UK
Jose Mourinho has been banned from four UEFA matches for directing abusive language at referee Anthony Taylor at the Europa League final.
The Roma manager and his staff were verbally abusive towards the Premier League official numerous times during their loss to Sevilla in Budapest.
After the game, footage on social media showed Mourinho directing a string of expletives towards the officiating team in the car park, labelling their performance a "disgrace".
Mourinho continued his criticism of the officials in his post-match press conference, saying: "I need to defend my lads, and I must say that we are used to it, but still seeing this kind of refereeing in a European final is really, really hard.
"It was an intense, vibrant game with a referee who seemed Spanish. It was yellow, yellow, yellow all the time."
Taylor and his family were also harassed as they made their way home from the final.
Clips on social media show them being ushered out of a cafe and into a secure area by airport security after supporters hounded the referee following an ill-tempered final on Wednesday evening.
The clips on Twitter show a chair and bottle being thrown in the direction of Taylor and his group.
A statement from Budapest Airport said criminal proceedings had begun against a man who was charged with affray after the incident.
Rather than backtracking from their criticism of Taylor, Roma doubled down and their general manager Tiago Pinto told Italian media: "We at AS Roma don't want to raise doubts about Sevilla's merits. We believe that with our opponents we put on a great final and honoured the stage offered to us by UEFA in the best way.
"We don't usually comment about these types of situations but we've analysed both the most glaring incidents and those seemingly less evident and it is clear that in disciplinary terms the refereeing of the match was not balanced."
Sevilla won on penalties to condemn Mourinho to his first defeat in a European final after an ill-tempered match which saw British referee Taylor dishing out 14 yellow cards, the most ever in a Europa League game, and playing almost 30 minutes of stoppage time in total.
Roma were fined a total of €55,000 (£47,500) and banned from selling tickets to their away supporters for their next match for "lighting of fireworks, throwing of objects, acts of damage and crowd disturbances" and "improper conduct of the team" during the final.
The Italian club were also ordered to contact the Hungarian Football Federation within 30 days for the settlement of the damages caused by supporters in the stadium.
Roma finished sixth in Serie A to qualify for the Europa League next season.
Roma were separately fined a total of £70,000 and ordered to partially close their stadium (6,000 seats) for throwing of objects during their semi-final against Bayer Leverkusen.
The German club were fined a total of £37,000 and also ordered to partially close their stadium (5,000 seats) for lighting of fireworks and throwing of objects.
Fiorentina and FC Basel were also fined and banned from selling tickets to their away supporters for their next game for similar offences.
Meanwhile, UEFA also announced West Ham fans would be banned for their next away game in European competition, with a further match suspended for two years.
That related to Hammers fans throwing missiles onto the pitch during their Europa Conference League final tie against Fiorentina in Prague earlier this month.
The Italian club's defender Cristiano Biraghi suffered a cut to the head from an object thrown from the crowd.
The Hammers were also fined €58,000 (£50,000) after their supporters threw objects on the pitch. West Ham will play in the Europa League next season after winning the final.
