Goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has been suspended for three games by Uefa in the wake of his red card and behaviour during Juventus' Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid.
Buffon was sent off in the second leg of the tie after protesting to referee Michael Oliver about the Englishman's decision to award a stoppage-time penalty against the Italian side, which led to Real's winning goal.
“The Uefa Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body has decided to suspend the Juventus Football Club player Gianluigi Buffon for three (3) Uefa competition matches for which he would be otherwise eligible,” the governing body said in a statement.
Buffon eventually apologised to Oliver, whose family received death threats on the back of the Italian’s comments about him immediately after the game.
“To award such a doubtful, or super doubtful penalty, just ahead of the final whistle and destroy the work of a team who gave absolutely everything you have to have a rubbish bin instead of a heart,” Buffon had said. “You need to be prepared for a game like this. You have to watch the first leg and see that a similar foul was not punished with a penalty for Juventus in Turin.
“And especially you need personality to referee a game like this. If you don't have personality, you better watch the game from the stands with your wife and your kids while eating fries. What did I say to him while I was protesting? I could say everything in that moment because when you take such decision in a certain moment of the game it means you don't know what sport is.
“A human being cannot decide the elimination of a team with such decision. When I don't feel that I'm good enough, I put myself in a corner. He should do the same. It's a matter of sensibility. It means you don't know where you are, which teams are playing, you don't know shit.
“If you have the cynicism to award a penalty like that in the 93rd minute, you are not a man, you are an animal.”
Buffon left Juventus at the end of the season but refused to confirm his retirement from football.
