A coach in Italy’s sixth tier is surprisingly keeping his job after he ran onto the field to halt an opposing team’s counterattack.
Alessio Guidotti is the head coach of Subbiano and went viral over the weekend when he decided it was up to him to aid his defense.
Guidotti, seen wearing an orange bib, ran onto the field and put in crunching tackle on a Pontassieve player.
Italian coach stops counterattack
Italy's 6th division (Promozione)
Pontassieve v Subbiano, the visitors' coach enters the pitch to stop a counter-attackMost obvious red card in football's history pic.twitter.com/UtsquhfQ9E
— Lorenzo Bettoni (@LoreBetto) September 8, 2024
To the surprise of no one, except Guidotti for some reason, the coach was given a straight red card.
Subbiano apologized for their coach’s actions in a club statement on Monday but didn’t indicate that they were going to get rid of him.
“The club is deeply sorry for what happened during Pontassieve-Subbiano,” the club said.
“Certain incidents should never happen, and we surely are the first ones to be upset. On Sundays, we are all football fans who come to watch games driven by passion. To get an advantage this way is unfair and deserves punishment, as it has partially happened already.
“At the same time, however, we are convinced that it was not a violent incident, and we are even more convinced that our coach, Guidotti, is the first one to be sorry. There’s not much to add.
“We hope tones will be kept down as they have been as unpleasant as the incident itself.”
The game ended 0-0 meaning Guidotti’s intervention might’ve prevented the opposing side, Pontassieve, from claiming three points.