ANTHONY TAYLOR revealed his family have not been to a match for two years due to sick abuse.
And the referee partly blamed Jose Mourinho for the shocking ordeal which prompted their decision.
Taylor, 46, took charge of the 2023 Europa League final as Sevilla beat Mourinho’s Roma on penalties.
He showed 15 yellow cards – including to the Roma gaffer – and added 25 minutes of stoppage time but did not make any major errors.
However, Mourinho labelled Taylor a “f***ing disgrace” then confronted him in the car park.
And when the referee walked through Budapest Airport with his family, they were targeted by angry Roma supporters.
One even tried to throw a chair at them as police protected the Taylor family.
Now speaking publicly about the awful, scary scenes for the first time, Taylor opened up on the impact of the incident.
He told BBC Sport: “That’s the worst situation I’ve dealt with in terms of abuse.
“Not only because I was travelling with family members at the time, but it also highlights the impact of people’s behaviour on others.
“Even in a match like that, where there was actually no major mistakes in the game.
“For me, that’s a great source of disappointment, frustration, anger.
“Why that’s acceptable, I don’t know – because I’m sure those individuals wouldn’t like somebody to turn around and say that to them or their own children.
“It makes you reflect back on whether you made a mistake travelling with your family in the first place.
“They haven’t been to one [match] since.”
Asked if Mourinho’s comments may have contributed to the fan behaviour, he added: “Yeah. I think if we’re being honest, yeah.”
Taylor is in his 17th season as a Premier League referee and officiated at the last three major international tournaments – as well as the “absolutely brutal” Club World Cup.
And although he still reckons it is “one of the best jobs in the world”, he admitted the scrutiny and treatment does take its toll.
Taylor continued: “The amount of scrutiny and the amount of analysis and chat around Premier League football means everybody has a quest for perfection.
‘PERFECTION DOESN’T EXIST’
“In reality, perfection doesn’t exist. We’re expecting referees to get every decision right.
“It is really important that we actually start to talk about people being fearful of failure or mistakes.
“If you’re continually told you’re not very good, whether that be by people in the media, by pundits, or even ex-officials, then people’s mental health could potentially suffer.
“The footballing culture in general is, ‘we need to win this game at all costs’.
“The lengths that people go to post-game with a lot of things now to spread false narratives, to spread malicious conspiracy theories… it creates a hugely negative environment for people to operate in.
“A football season is not dependent on one match official decision. It’s not dependent on one player missing one penalty in a game. It’s not dependent on one coach making one tactical error during a game. Playing over 38 games…
“So you say the argument one decision has cost somebody the whole season… it’s just factually not true because there’ll be plenty of other incidents in a game or over that season where the results of games have been affected.”
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