Paolo Di Canio has admitted the Football Association were right to give him an 11-game ban for pushing referee Paul Alcock to the floor.
However, he also believes the official handled the situation poorly, with the Italian earlier receiving an elbow to the face from Arsenal defender Martin Keown.
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During the 1998/99 season, Di Canio starred for Sheffield Wednesday but was also at the centre of one of the Premier League‘s wildest moments.
Arsenal made the visit to Hillsborough in September 1998 and on the stroke of half-time Patrick Vieira was tackled by Wim Jonk, with the former pushing over the latter in response.
Di Canio ran up to defend his teammate by shoving the Gunners star and Keown was quick to intervene, although his elbow caught the head of the striker, who kicked out and grabbed the defender’s face.
Referee Alcock showed him a red card but Di Canio pushed him to the ground in anger and was subsequently banned for 11 games.
Speaking on Up Front with talkSPORT host Simon Jordan with William Hill, Di Canio realises why he was given such a lengthy suspension.
“I think the ban I received was right,” he said. “Thinking as a footballer, I would be selfish and say it was too much and it should have only been a three-match ban, but I have to think as a sportsman and I think it was the right message to send.
“It sent a message to others to say that you simply cannot act like that. If they had given me three matches that would have been comparing what I did to a bad challenge, it wouldn’t have sent a real message.
“I would have the matches that I got suspended for in favour of a bigger fine and I tried to ask for that. I asked the FA to take out five or six of the matches from my suspension and fine me more but they stuck to it and I think that was the right thing to do.”
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Despite pushing Alcock and admitting he was wrong to do so, Di Canio feels that the referee could have handled the situation better.
“I think [the sending off] came down to me being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Di Canio said. “There was a challenge between Vieira and Jonk, so I went over to separate them because I played at AC Milan with Vieira.
“Instantly, Keown came over to separate me from them using his elbow, it hit me straight in the nose and the anger went straight to my head. In that moment it felt like street football.
“In my opinion, the referee made a mistake. Obviously, what I did was completely wrong, and we have to let people know that it was the worst example of sportsmanship.
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“But a top referee, rather than arrive straight in front of me when I was fighting with the red card, would have waited with the linesman for everybody to calm down for 30 or 40 seconds, then call me over and send me off to give me more time to relax.
“In that moment I was fuming, so when I saw the red card, I just instinctively pushed him as if to say, ‘go away!’
“I don’t want to argue about how he went down because at the end of the day you can’t touch the referee no matter what. He is the authority between two teams so you shouldn’t even go close to him. What I did was completely wrong.”
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