Premier League referee Anthony Taylor insisted supporters needed to have a more sympathetic view towards referees before he was attacked in Budapest's airport this week.
Taylor took charge of Wednesday's fiery Europa League final in which Sevilla defeated Roma in a penalty shootout. Roma boss Jose Mourinho was left furious with Taylor and even waited in the car park to lambast the referee after the game.
Taylor and his family were then attacked by angry Roma fans as they made their way through the airport on Thursday, in disgusting scenes. The Englishman had to be escorted by police officers, with Mourinho and Roma being slammed by many for their actions in the final.
Even ahead of the game, Taylor - who was pictured back in Manchester with his wife on Friday morning - called for a cool down in attitudes towards referees. The Premier League official insisted that the performance of the referee was not the only factor to consider in a team's loss.
"Just more understanding and more empathy. So again, yes mistakes are made and we're far from perfect. Far from perfect. But there's many other facets that contribute to the result of a football match," he told the High Performance Podcast in February.
"And so maybe reflect. Before you start trying to blame on individual, maybe try and consider. Very difficult I appreciate objectively after a team's loss. Consider the things that go into what's been decided and try to understand why something has been done."
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Taylor faced appalling abuse after Mourinho took aim at him for failing to give Roma a late penalty on Wednesday. He later order a spot-kick Roma keeper Rui Patricio had saved to be retaken, with Gonzalo Montiel scoring second time around.
Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey leap to Taylor's defence for his performance in the final. And the Englishman lambasted Mourinho for the antics of both him and his team on Wednesday.
“You can’t condone the actions of Jose Mourinho, the Roma players and the Sevilla players. I think their behaviour was absolutely appalling. That’s going around the world and young children are seeing these babies," he told talkSPORT.
"The way they act and surround the referee – it was impossible for Anthony Taylor to control. I really thought the team did exceptionally well to keep 22 players on the field of play and Anthony refereed the game exceptionally well under extreme pressure from players and team officials.
“It’s difficult in that situation because if you start handing out early yellow cards and sending players off, people will say the referee has ruined the game. Referees do not want to send players off, they can only referee to the way players behave, and their behaviour was appalling.
“They knew what they were doing, Anthony was aware of it and it makes it so difficult for a referee to control a game like that. I felt really sorry for him. You cannot blame the officials, it’s solely down to the players and the coaches."
