Italian rugby player Bruno Andres Doglioli has been banned from the sport for three years after leveling a female referee with a brutal hit, the Italian Rugby Federation announced Thursday.
The play occurred during a game in Italy’s top division on Sunday, with Dogioli’s Rangers Rugby Vicenza team taking on Padua. Doglioli clotheslined the referee, Maria Beatrice Benvenuti, who was reportedly taken to a hospital and diagnosed with whiplash.
The FIR condemned Doglioli’s actions as “a deliberate act of violence.