UEFA and FIFA have been warned that an 'evolution' of abuse of match referees will eventually result in the referee being murdered. UK arbitration charity Martin Cassidy admits he dreads the day he receives the call about a murder of the referee.
At the end of a season where abuses of referees were notoriously on the rise, tensions peaked when Premier League manager Anthony Taylor was chased by Roma fans inside Budapest Airport. Taylor, who lives with his wife and young children, appeared helpless as hundreds of Italian club fans shouted insults, some trying to approach the match referee.
The 44-year-old referee caught Roma's Europa League defeat to Sevilla. After the game, head coach Jose Mourinho waited for Taylor in the Puskas Arena car park to call England officials "assholes". Mourinho's actions led to Roma fans harassing Taylor at the airport.
And Cassidy thinks that worsening behavior towards officials will come naturally. He even feared that at this rate, a referee would be killed in the future. After Ref Support UK's tweet containing Taylor's abusive video was viewed more than nine million times, Cassidy warned UEFA and FIFA to take control of the situation. “There is a clear path to disaster. A lot of referees basically look at [the Taylor incident] and think, 'This is going to happen to me.' The only difference is that there will be no crew at a grassroots football game and nine million views on the Twitter account. It will be a disaster if UEFA and FIFA don't get this under control," Cassidy, CEO of the charity that supports referees, told Express Sport.
taylor
Anthony Taylor and his family were abused by Roma fans inside Budapest airport (Photo:
Twitter)
"I think everyone realizes that the responsibility for those actions and words really ends up with the kind of cameraless incidents during grassroots football matches. None of this surprised me, I was just shocked when it was filmed. Most referees are familiar with this type of behavior.
Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes avoided a penalty in March after appearing to push assistant referee Adam Nunn during the Reds' 7-0 loss to Liverpool. Fulham's Aleksandar Mitrovic was not so lucky, having received an eight-match ban after shoving referee Chris Kavanagh during the FA Cup draw with United.
Jurgen Klopp received a ban and a fine after celebrating with fourth referee Jonathan Brooks before hinting that referee Paul Tierney had shown favoritism towards his Liverpool side, which had just beaten Tottenham 4-3 at Anfield.
Cassidy continued:
"The Bruno Fernandes incident has been diluted. Adam Nunn was trying to stop him from running towards Trent Alexander-Arnold, having done a good job of stopping Fernandes from fighting Scouser in front of The Kop. But it was Nunn who was pushed behind by Fernandes.
Sevilla FC - AS Roma - UEFA Europa League Final 2022/23
Premier League referee Anthony Taylor caught Roma's Europa League defeat to Sevilla (Image:
Getty)
It was disturbing to witness and we hope Anthony and his family are okay.
This is why we believe that organizations like @LMA_Managers and @PFA as well as @WeAreTheFSA need to come out and condemn such behavior in this country.
Manager comments and player behavior… pic.twitter.com/FiXUOfYWCC
– Refsupportuk (@refsupportuk) June 1, 2023
“Then there was the Mitrovic incident, and the development of this horrible behavior made me fear that the next step could be the death of a match official. The
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