Watch: Shocking attack on referee Anthony Taylor and family by ...
Anthony Taylor, the referee for the Europa League final, and his family were abused and harassed by angry Roma fans who directed insults at him and threw a chair in his direction, in a video published on the Gazzetta dello Sport. The incident occurred at the Budapest airport.
Embarassing Roma fans abusing Anthony Taylor who is with family on his way at the airport.
Disgusting. You can see his daughter in tears and drinks being thrown at his wife too.pic.twitter.com/ljTwo239dB
— Saturnion :) (@saturnion13) June 1, 2023
The development comes on the backdrop of Roma blaming Taylor for its penalty shootout loss to Sevilla in the final on Wednesday.
Roma coach Jose Mourinho had also lashed out at the referee and was spotted insulting Taylor in the garage of the Puskas Arena in Budapest as his team prepared to depart the stadium.
According to a report in Football Italia, the fan that threw the chair has been apprehended by the police.
The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), English top-tier referees association, released a statement and said: “We are appalled at the unjustified and abhorrent abuse directed at Anthony and his family as he tries to make his way home from refereeing the UEFA Europa League final. We will continue to provide our full support to Anthony and his family,” the referees association added.
UEFA is still awaiting the referee’s report from the match.
Anthony Taylor the worst is yet to come.pic.twitter.com/bC3cYkvshs
— MourinhoXtra™ (@Mourinho_Xtra) June 1, 2023
Meanwhile, Roma general manager Tiago Pinto continued the attack on Taylor in a statement to Italian news agency ANSA 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 honored the stage offered to us by UEFA in the best way,” Pinto said. “We don’t usually comment immediately about these types of situations but over the course of today we’ve analyzed 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.”
