MY ACCOUNT
Jose Mourinho should be suspended from coaching and Roma barred from European competitions following the “disgraceful” harassment of Anthony Taylor after Wednesday’s Europa League final.
That is the view of Martin Cassidy, chief executive of Ref Support UK – a charity committed to supporting officials – after Taylor was abused following Roma’s penalty shoot-out defeat to Sevilla.
Roma boss Mourinho was fiercely critical of Taylor’s performance as Sevilla won a record-extending seventh Europa League title via spot-kicks following an ill-tempered 1-1 draw in Budapest.
Thirteen players were booked during the match, while Gonzalo Montiel scored his winning penalty at the second attempt after Rui Patricio was punished for encroachment after initially saving his kick.
Mourinho was seen shouting expletives at Taylor after the game, and the English official was harassed by Giallorossi supporters when at Budapest Airport with his family.
Speaking to Stats Perform, Cassidy outlined the strong punishments he would like to see issued to coaches who abuse officials.
“I’d be interested to speak to the legal people in UEFA and FIFA, to see if they could take their coaching badges away from them,” Cassidy said.
“Take it away from them. Say, ‘I’m sorry, we are going to suspend your badge, you can’t coach at that level’. Let’s see what that does.
“Obviously, big legal challenges will come that way. But let’s have things in place to say, ‘Look, a stadium ban is not working on you and one or two fines when you are a multimillionaire are not going to bother you’.
“Let’s really hurt you, let’s take you away from being able to coach, let’s suspend your coaching badge. Job done.”
Cassidy believes Mourinho’s behaviour is being replicated by grassroots coaches, and says his club should be barred from Europe or handed a points deduction for next season.
“It’s just disgraceful,” he added. “How many chances does this man [Mourinho] want before some national governing body or UEFA or FIFA take appropriate action against him?
“This behaviour he shows manifests itself at grassroots level when there’s a youth referee in the middle, and little mini-Mourinhos are on the sidelines repeating and replicating those antics.
“It’s not good at all. And I just think, the managers – it’s not just Jose Mourinho – other people do it and have been doing for a long time… they throw in a small fine, it might be £100 or £1,000.
“That’s a small fine for some of these people, for some of them it is not even a week’s wages. They throw in a ban, well, Jose Mourinho has been banned before from stadiums and still found a way of doing his coaching.
“What are UEFA going to do? I think don’t allow them to play in Europe next year.
“If they do allow them to play in Europe, let’s have them on a minus points deficit of say three or four points, let’s just have a message that is different to what we’ve been doing previously.”
