Serie C coach cops five-month ban for headbutting rival

The coach of Italian Serie C team Lucchese, Giancarlo Favarin, has been given a five-month ban for headbutting 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 Favarin headbutting Gaetano Mancino, assistant coach of rivals Alessandria, during a brawl at the end of a 2-2 draw between their teams in Italy's third division 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 headbutt, 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."