Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso last Monday was slapped with a five-match ban for his aggressive behaviour at the end of the Milan-Tottenham Champions League last 16 first leg, played at San Siro the week before. One of the games he will have to miss is because of an accumulation of yellow cards.

That Gattuso did wrong is undisputed. During the match, he had already had an altercation on the touchline with Spurs official Joe Jordan, incidentally a former Milan player in the 1980s. After the final whistle, the midfielder grabbed Jordan by the neck and head-butted him, and reports say that the dispute continued in the tunnel too, far away from the TV cameras.

As captain of the team on the night, Gattuso should have set a better example. He allowed himself to be drawn into the issue from which he was the only loser, together with his team, as he will now have to sit out the next matches, including the return leg at White Hart Lane. He should have known better than to behave the way he did.

The player was however the first to admit his mistake, minutes after the offence had taken place. He acknowledged that he had acted in a bad way, and apologised to his team-mates, the club and the fans.

It takes a great man to admit an error. Many other players, who have committed worse offences, never had the guts to acknowledge their mistake. Their pride stopped them from being gentlemen.

Gattuso’s club, Milan, also recognised its part in the mishap, and decided not to appeal the judgement. Milan accepted the punishment that was meted out to its player and, although knowing that his absence will be a great handicap, it has chosen to go with the UEFA disciplinary board decision. Other clubs tend to defend their player, even when they know he did wrong, in a bid to have the punishment reduced.

There is another side to the story. Gattuso behaved badly, but he was provoked into doing so, and yet the perpetrator walked free. Joe Jordan had been offending Gattuso all throughout the second half, obviously with the intention of pushing him over the limit, and yet he was not punished for what he did.

It would not have changed much, as an absence of an official from the bench is no big deal, but UEFA, besides rightly punishing Gattuso, should also have punished Jordan and the club he represents.