Jose Mourinho has been charged by UEFA for using ‘insulting/abusive language against a match official’ after confrontations with Anthony Taylor during Wednesday’s Europa League final.
The Roma manager and his staff were abusive towards the Premier League referee numerous times during the defeat to Sevilla in Budapest.
After the game, footage on social media showed Mourinho directing a string of expletives toward the officials 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 on Thursday.
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 had been 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 on Thursday: “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.
While Mourinho was individually charged, both clubs have also been charged with a number of offenses by UEFA, with fan behaviour also penalised.
Roma were also charged with throwing of objects, lighting of fireworks, acts of damage, crowd disturbances and improper conduct of their team.
Sevilla too have been charged with throwing of objects, lighting of fireworks, acts of damage, crowd disturbances and improper conduct of their team.
Sky Sports
