AS Roma have been fined €10,000 by Serie A after their ball boys purposely slowed down Sunday’s league game against Monza.
Jose Mourinho’s side secured a dramatic 1-0 win over Monza thanks to Stephan El Shaarawy‘s winner in the 90th minute.
Italy’s sporting judge ruled that Roma’s ball boys took too much time to get the ball back after the home side had scored the winning goal.
A league statement read: “Roma by way of objective responsibility, to have its own ball boys, after the goal has been scored, systematically slowed down the regular restart of the game, forcing the referee to extend injury time by two minutes.”
Mourinho was also handed a one-game touchline ban after he was sent off near the end of the game for mocking Monza’s bench by making a crying gesture.
With the red card, Mourinho won’t be on the bench for Roma’s next league game, on the road against his former club Inter Milan.
The Portuguese manager has been very vocal in the past about his thoughts about ball boys.
During his time at Tottenham Hotspur, Mourinho praised a club ball boy for quickly hurling the ball for Sèrge Aurier to take a quick throw that sparked an equaliser in a 4-2 Champions League win over Olympiakos.
“I love intelligent ball boys, like I was,” Mourinho said at the time. “I was a brilliant ball boy as a kid. This kid today was brilliant. He reads the game, understands the game and made an important assist.”
However, the former Manchester United manager criticised the ball boys at Old Trafford for their slow reaction in returning the ball and replaced them with academy payers.
In 2014, while at Chelsea, Mourinho hit out at Newcastle United‘s ball boys for time-wasting in his team’s 2-1 defeat at St. James Park.
