‘Don’t believe in it anymore’
NOS Football–
AS Roma coach José Mourinho is withdrawing from the UEFA Football Board with immediate effect. He writes this in a letter to the European Football Association.
His decision comes days after UEFA suspended him for four European matches for his outburst against referee Anthony Taylor following the Europa League final against Sevilla.
In that heated final on June 1, Taylor handed out as many as 14 yellow cards, the most ever in a Europa League match. Roma was fined 5,000 euros for the poor behavior of its players.
After the final in Budapest, Mourinho complained at length about the referee, calling him a “disgrace” among other things. When he later encountered Taylor in the parking deck, Mourinho scolded the referee in English and Italian.
Mourinho gives away silver medal and insults referee: ‘What an idiot’
After his outburst, a group of Roma supporters at Budapest airport shouted insults at Taylor and his family, one of them even hurling a chair toward the referee.
“I thank you for the invitation to join the UEFA Football Board, but I regret to inform you that I will renounce my involvement with immediate effect,” Mourinho said in the letter.
Poor understanding with Ceferin
“The conditions I so strongly believed in when I joined no longer apply, and as a result I feel obliged to make this decision. I kindly ask you to communicate my decision to President Aleksander Ceferin.”
Mourinho shared his decision in a letter to UEFA director and former AC Milan president Zvonimir Boban. That he did not address the letter directly to UEFA president Aleksandar Ceferin marks the poor relationship between the two.
The UEFA Football Board was created to give trainers and (former) players space to share their ideas on how to improve soccer. Mourinho is regularly critical of UEFA and so is now withdrawing.
