French referee gets three-month ban
Paris: The French referee who kicked out at a player during a Ligue 1 game was Thursday handed a three-month ban by disciplinary chiefs with a further three months suspended.
Tony Chapron, 45, kicked Diego Carlos of Nantes towards the end of the match against Paris Saint-Germain on January 14 after being knocked over when the pair collided.
Chapron sent the player off before apologising the next day, saying Carlos had bumped into him but that his own reaction had been "clumsy" and "inappropriate".
The French Football Federation (FFF) suspended Chapron "until further notice" and the league's disciplinary commission met Thursday in Paris with Chapron attending the two-hour proceedings with his lawyer.
"The meeting took place in a calm atmosphere which was in contrast to the media lynching (around the affair)," said Samuel Chevret, the referee's lawyer.
At the time of the affair, the FFF said in a statement that Chapron had reviewed video footage of the incident and "noted that his fall had been caused accidentally".
