Soccer-Italian coach banned for five months for head-butting rival

The coach of Italian Serie C team Lucchese has been given a five-month ban for head-butting a member of the opposing team's staff and telling a player to break an opponent's legs. Footage of the match showed the shaven-headed Giancarlo Favarin head-butting Gaetano Mancino, assistant coach of rivals Alessandria, during a brawl at the end of a 2-2 draw between their teams on Sunday.

Mancino was caught off-balance and knocked to the ground by the blow. Serie C's disciplinary tribunal said in a statement that Favarin made "blasphemous remarks" during the match and "invited his own player to 'break the legs' of an opponent."

He also "began a slanging match with a member of the opposing team's staff at the peak of which he hit the latter with a violent head butt, making him fall to the ground ". Mancino, meanwhile, was given a two-match ban for "offensive and provocative behaviour towards the coach of the rival team during the match." (Writing by Brian Homewood Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)