UEFA opened a disciplinary investigation against AC Milan captain Gennaro Gattuso on Wednesday after he head-butted a Tottenham assistant coach at the end of a heated Champions League match.
UEFA did not specify the charges Gattuso will face when its disciplinary panel hears the case against him and Milan, which is responsible for its players' behavior, next Monday.
Gattuso apologized for his clash with Spurs assistant Joe Jordan after the final whistle of the last-16 match won 1-0 by Tottenham at the San Siro in Milan on Tuesday.
''I take full responsibility. I was wound up after exchanging words with Jordan,'' Gattuso, who used to play for Rangers, told Italian news agency ANSA.
''We were both speaking Scottish, something that I learned when I played in his home city of Glasgow, but I can't tell you what we said. I will have to await what (UEFA) decide.''
Gattuso was involved in an earlier sideline altercation with Jordan, a former Milan player. In a typically combative performance by Gattuso, he was also booked for a foul and will miss the second leg in London on March 9.
UEFA disciplinary rules call for a further ban of at least three matches from European competitions ''for assaulting players or others present at the match.''
Former Milan great Marcel Desailly, who attended the match, told The Associated Press that Gattuso had ''gone a bit too far.''
''He needs to try and control it because he is a captain. We understand the pressure in the Champions League,'' said Desailly, who played on Milan's 1994 European champion side.
''Everybody has seen the image. Now is the time for UEFA to decide (on sanctions),'' Desailly said at UEFA headquarters for a Champions League promotional event.
UEFA opened a case after studying reports from French referee Stephane Lannoy and its match delegate, Fernand Meese of Belgium.
However, European football's governing body declined to charge Milan midfielder Mathieu Flamini, who was shown a yellow card for a two-footed tackle that resulted in Spurs defender Vedran Corluka being carried off on a stretcher and later needing crutches.
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp called on UEFA to take further action against Flamini.
''I'd like (UEFA) to look at that tackle. It was a leg-breaking tackle, it was two footed, off the floor and the ref should have sent him off,'' Redknapp said.
UEFA decided that Lannoy saw the incident fully and dealt with it on the field of play.
