OLYMPIAKOS owner Evangelos Marinakis allegedly entered the referee’s room at half-time of Burnley’s Europa League defeat in Athens to vent his frustration at the officials’ performances during the first 45 minutes of the tie.

Players, staff and officials of the Greek club were furious towards the end of the first period when Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic turned down a second penalty appeal, having awarded the Clarets a spot kick earlier in the half.

More than a dozen staff from the home club poured onto the pitch in anger after appeals for handball against Stephen Ward were waved away, and the protests continued down the tunnel, with director of team operations Dourekas Kyriakos reportedly chasing after the officials. At the Karaiskasis Stadium the referee’s room is opposite the home dressing room.

The Lancashire Telegraph understands that Marinakis, who also owns Nottingham Forest, entered the officials room and could be heard loudly exchanging views.

That incident is understood not to have been included in the referees or the UEFA delegates report and so is unlikely to be investigated by UEFA although Burnley did raise their concerns with governing body representatives on the night.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, three Burnley players who were not in the matchday squad - Ben Mee, Adam Legzdins and teenager Dwight McNeil, who were sat behind the dugouts - were spat at by Olympiakos fans.

Two close protection security staff employed by Burnley were sat behind the players and told Olympiakos security staff that the players had to be moved. The incident happened five minutes before the break and the trio watched the rest of the game in a VIP box with other Clarets staff.

The Burnley security officers were due to be stood next to the away dugout, as they were in Istanbul for the tie against Basaksehir, but were allegedly told by Olympiakos officials that they were not able to stay there and so were moved behind Mee, Legzdins and McNeil.

Burnley were beaten 3-1 in Greece. Chris Wood levelled for the home side from the spot after Kostas Fortounis had put the hosts in front. Andreas Bouchalakis restored Olympiakos’ lead early after the interval before Fortounis added a third from the spot after a handball by Ben Gibson which saw the Clarets centre back sent off for a second yellow card. The second leg takes place at Turf Moor on Thursday.

Speaking immediately after the game, Dyche said of the scenes at half time: “After the incident where they tried for a penalty, which wasn’t a penalty, I don’t know how many people ran on the pitch and surrounded the referee and the linesman and the officials.

"All I keep getting told is respect the officials with your conduct around the referee.

"The scenes I saw at half-time from all and sundry around the referee on their side. They were waiting for the referee. You all saw the feel of the game was different in the second half. You’re left scratching your head.

“There were plenty of people involved in the tunnel, waiting for the referee to come in and let him know ion no uncertain times what they felt.

“We are given very strict guidelines from UEFA and the Premier League about respect towards the referees and we did what we always do in that we walked straight down the tunnel into our dressing room. And at the end by the way too. You didn’t see me speak to the officials at all.

“It was interesting because there were that many people involved. It wasn’t just the people on the bench, it was all sorts of people from the offices. The tea lady was there at one point! That’s a joke.

“But there were plenty of people there making it clear they were not happy with the referee’s performance.”