One of the Premier League’s top referees has revealed he considered quitting the game after he and his family were subjected to vile abuse in an airport after a major European final.
Anthony Taylor and his loved ones were targeted by a baying mob of Roma supporters at Budapest airport after the English referee took charge of the Italian side’s defeat against Sevilla in the 2023 Europa League final.
Roma’s then-manager Jose Mourinho confronted Taylor, 46, in the car park at the Puskas Arena long after the final whistle and labelled the official a ‘f***ing disgrace’ for his ‘bull****’ decisions. Taylor insists he made ‘no major mistakes’ in the game.
With Roma’s fans as riled up about Taylor as their manager, the English official was cornered by more than a hundred supporters in Budapest airport as he and his family tried to leave the city following the match.
Security staff struggled to keep a barrier between the referee, his family and Roma fans who swore and threw items, including a chair, in chaotic scenes.
Taylor, who is regarded as one of England’s top referees, has opened up on how some certain incidents have led to him nearly throwing in the towel altogether.
‘That’s for sure the worst situation I’ve dealt with in terms of abuse,’ he told BBC Sport of the Europa League final. ‘Not only because I was travelling with family members at the time, but it also highlights the impact of people’s behaviour on others – and so yeah, there’s always scrutiny around big, high-profile matches.
‘But even in a match like that where there were actually no major mistakes in the game… we’re trying to shift focus, for somebody to blame, and for me, that’s a great source of disappointment, frustration, anger.
‘There’s certainly been moments – and I won’t be alone in this – there’s certainly been moments where you’re thinking, “is it is it worth it?” And certainly moments where you’re thinking, “what’s being said is completely unfair”.
‘We have this archaic psychological tactic of “let’s bombard the ref or bombard the fourth official with the hope of getting a decision out of it”.
‘Part of my mind is actually, well, the behaviour directed towards you a lot of the time is actually not real. It’s people playing games. And you kind of filter that, almost in a comical way, because they’re behaving like children a lot of the time.’
Taylor was accused by Mourinho of ‘seeming Spanish’ for the number of yellow cards he dished out, and the veteran coach angrily confronted the referee after the match.
Deep in the bowels of the ground, Mourinho fumed at Taylor in several languages.
‘F***ing disgrace, man, it’s a f***ing disgrace,’ Mourinho raged, before switching to swear at the official in Italian. ‘F*** off,’ he continued.
He then approached the referee’s mini-bus and sniped, ‘congratulations, you f***ing disgrace’, before trudging off to the team bus.
Taylor was also ambushed by fans at the airport as he travelled home with his family.
‘It makes you it makes you reflect back on whether you made a mistake travelling with your family in the first place,’ Taylor said. ‘But considering your family as match officials our families don’t really travel with us to matches, they only tend to come to the big final matches like that one in Budapest.
‘And for what should have been a night of them simply travelling home and having enjoyed the final the night before then, it’s really disappointing to see.
‘The footballing culture in general has a very archaic, psychological tactic that we need to win this game at all costs. In what realm is an adult shouting verbal abuse to a referee or a young player who is under 18 years of age acceptable?
‘In football it is, because every single weekend you can go to any local park across the UK and you can see a parent on the sideline verbally abusing a young referee.
‘Yes, football’s a results-driven business, but sometimes across the game, there’s almost a “win at all cost” mentality, and “let’s not worry about the consequence outside of that”.
‘If we truly want to make it a better environment for everybody, and remember what happens at the elite level cascades all the way down particularly to grassroots football, the levels of abuse and criticism really need to be challenged in that environment to make sure that it’s an enjoyable game for absolutely everybody.’
