Former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr believes that José Mourinho's conduct in the Europa League Final was 'unseemly' on Wednesday night.
Mourinho's Roma played Sevilla in the final, and it was the Andalusian team that came out on top via a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw in normal time.
"I'll happily sit and watch a team play defensive football. But all this rigmarole coming with it..."
"The haranguing of the referee and officials just isn't nice."
Damien Delaney & Brian Kerr weren't a fan of Jose Mourinho and Roma's approach tonight.#UELfinal pic.twitter.com/wTJtwuE2mp— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) May 31, 2023
The game in normal time went as many people predicted a Mourinho-esque game would go: niggly fouls, constant berating of the referee, time wasting, and a lack of flowing football.
Anthony Taylor, the referee during the game, was on the receiving end of verbal abuse from players and Mourinho himself during the heated contest.
Taylor brandished out 13 yellow cards, the most ever in a Europa League game, and played almost 30 minutes of stoppage time in total.
After the game, video footage appeared of Mourinho furiously lambasting Taylor and his team for their performances in a car park. 'F**g disgrace, man. It's a f**g disgrace,' Mourinho fumed, before switching to swear at the official in Italian. 'F*** off,' he continued. Mourinho then approached the minibus taking the referee away from the stadium where he sniped:
'Congratulations, you f***ing disgrace,' before trudging off to the team bus. Kerr, who was working as a pundit on Virgin Media's coverage of the game, claimed he wasn't happy with Mourinho's conduct.
"The haranguing of the referee and officials just isn't nice," said Kerr, working as a pundit for Virgin Media Sport.
"There's been a lot of great football this season. We had a brilliant World Cup final, we've had teams playing above themselves and producing great goals and great moments, and we had a great Premier League this season with fabulous football.
"But this sort of game... I understand defensive football, and I understand managers making the best of what they have by playing deep and playing on the counter-attack and so on. "
But all the other bits around it are just unseemly."
Damien Delaney, his co-pundit, also gave a similar take on the situation and said Roma didn't deserve to win the final.
It has also been confirmed that Uefa will wait for reports from match officials and delegates before deciding whether to take action against Roma manager Mourinho
"I'll happily sit and watch a team play defensive football, counter-attack, and set up to not lose a game. But all this rigmarole that goes with it, the moaning, the scratching, the asking for yellow cards, the diving.
"Pellegrini's dive, an atrocious moment in a final to do that. "They didn't deserve it for the way they approached the final. Not just tactics-wise, but the bench all night."
𝗠𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗵𝗼: “𝗦𝗲𝗶 𝘂𝗻𝗮 𝗳*****𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘇𝗶𝗮‼️”
L’allenatore della Roma urla tutta la sua rabbia in faccia all’arbitro Taylor🤬 Mentre Rosetti, designatore UEFA, cerca di calmarlo
📹 @GianluVisco #ASRoma #Mourinho #EuropaLeagueFinal #Sportitalia pic.twitter.com/3TxOZAEol0— Sportitalia (@tvdellosport) May 31, 2023
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