Italian manager resigns after PUNCHING referee
Carlo Garganese
- 28 Sept 2021 15:59 BST
- 3 min read
An Italian coach has resigned after he punched a referee in the face during a match.
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Carpignano coach Giovanni Alosi struck referee Andrea Felis during the Prima Categoria clash against Oleggio Castello.
Alosi’s team were 2-0 down when he was sent off by the match official for dissent.
This infuriated Alosi, who approached Felis and hit him in the face.
The seventh division game was then abandoned and it is expected that Oleggio Castello will now win the match 3-0 by default.
Alosi, who is set for a long ban from the sport, immediately resigned after the game as well as apologising for his behaviour.
Coach apologises for punching referee
Oggi a Carpignano pic.twitter.com/Xwa2yn9KTb
— Wazza © (@Wazza_CN) September 26, 2021
“I’m not looking for justifications,” he told I am Calcio.
“My gesture has nothing to do with the values and with my way of understanding football, which is first of all fun that cannot and must not allow tensions such as those that led me to make this very ugly gesture and of which I’m personally ashamed.
“I have seen the images too, but I don’t recognise myself. I can only apologise to the referee, with whom I had the opportunity to speak at the end of the match to tell him in person, to our opponents for having ruined a football match in which violent gestures such as mine should never find place, and finally to my teammates who I feel responsible for, not just for the role I hold but also because we have a youth sector with many young players who should never be presented with examples like mine.”
This is not the first time in history that a referee has been on the receiving end of violence on the pitch.
Perhaps the most famous incident in recent years was when Paolo Di Canio pushed over referee Paul Alcock during a match between Sheffield Wednesday and Arsenal in 1997.
Di Canio was handed an 11-match ban for the incident and £10,000 fine.
