Declan Rice was white-hot after West Ham United’s elimination in the Europa League semi-final. The Hammers had to brush away a 2-1 defeat from a week ago in their own home during the return match against Eintracht Frankfurt, but also went down on Thursday evening with ten men in the Deutsche Bank Park (1-0). An angry Rice accused Spanish referee Jesús Gil Manzano of corruption after the match in the catacombs.
“Referee, umpire, you were very bad,” said the West Ham United captain as he sought out the referee after the final whistle. “You were very bad. All night, you were so bad. How could you be so bad? Honestly, they could have paid you. F*cking corruption!” Rice also accused the arbitrator at the press conference after the elimination of partiality. “I think the red card (from Aaron Cresswell, ed.) was justified, but otherwise the decisions of the leader were bad. It seemed like he whistled in Frankfurt’s favor every time. If someone is like that to you, it’s a fight.”
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† (@Yerdas_out) May 6, 2022
David Moyes doesn’t want to look too much into Rice’s outburst a day after the elimination. “It just shows how much all the players cared,” said the Scottish manager. “We felt we had been treated quite badly overall. When you understand football, everyone is emotional. Unless you’re in the middle of it yourself, sometimes people don’t understand what it feels like.” Moyes also showed his worst side during the duel with Frankfurt by kicking a ball hard towards a ball boy, whose head was just missed.
Twelve minutes before time, Moyes appeared to be short-circuited when trailing in the Deutsche Bank Park. He kicked a thrown ball back to a ball boy, who was visibly startled. The Scot was immediately presented with a red card from the arbiter and ended his outburst of anger at the press conference on Thursday evening with a somewhat misplaced joke. “I have to apologize for kicking the ball to the ball boy. But he threw the ball to me very softly, it was perfect for a volley”, after which Moyes fell a short silence. “My apologies.”