PARIS (AP) — Lyon coach Paulo Fonseca has been banned from the touchline at games for nine months for aggressively confronting the referee at a French league game.
Fonseca also is banned from the locker room and access to players at games until Sept. 15, the French league said in a disciplinary ruling on Wednesday.
The ban applies just to domestic games and can let Fonseca work on Thursday in the UEFA-organized Europa League. Lyon plays a first-leg game of the round of 16 in Romania against FCSB.
Fonseca angrily confronted referee Benoît Millot on Sunday about a potential penalty for Brest deep in stoppage time as Lyon led 2-1.
After being shown a card, Fonseca approached the referee and leaned in very close to his face before being pushed away by Lyon captain Corentin Tolisso. Fonseca tried to confront the referee a second time and was restrained by a couple of Lyon players.
It was Fonseca’s fifth game in charge of Lyon since being hired in January by the club’s American owner John Textor. The Portuguese coach was fired by AC Milan in December after just six months in charge.
Textor gave his backing to Fonesca.
“I stand with you today, and always,” he posted on Instagram. “You made a mistake. Your apology was sincere and your punishment is clearly too severe. You are the right man for OL (Lyon) and we shall persevere.”
Lyon said on Wednesday it regretted Fonseca was judged for his emotional reaction and he had no intent to physically attack the referee. The club is considering an appeal and noted the context of criticism of refereeing in French soccer.
“The club deplores that its coach was not judged on his actions alone, an emotional reaction without any clear intention of physically attacking the referee,” Lyon said. “(The punishment) seems to be dictated by a damaging context affecting French refereeing.”
Marseille president Pablo Longoria was given a 15-match ban last week after he accused French referees of “ true corruption."
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
The Associated Press
