The man, a 45-year-old restaurateur from Ancona named Andrea Serrani, is under investigation for sexual assault over his actions following the Empoli-Fiorentina match on Saturday evening.
Greta Beccaglia, the 27-year-old journalist he assaulted during a live broadcast for Toscana TV, filed an official complaint with the police over the case which made headlines after footage of the incident went viral.
Serrani, who has a partner and a young daughter, was subsequently banned from football games for 36 months.
“I did a stupid thing,” Serrani said on Italian radio show Zanzara.
“I’m being described as an abuser but I’m not like that.”
However, Beccaglia made it known that she has no intention of withdrawing the police complaint against Serrani.
“If he apologises, that man does the bare minimum,” she told state broadcaster RaiNews24.
“But apologies in these cases aren’t enough.
“Justice must take its course and establish that that disgraceful gesture is wrong.”
Beccaglia’s colleague, veteran reporter Giorgio Micheletti, has been suspended from presenting the Toscana TV program amid accusations that he downplayed the incident by advising her “not to get mad” over the incident.
“I apologise for the unfortunate words used in the agitated moment of the live broadcast on Saturday,” he told Italian news agency ANSA.
“In that moment, my only interest was to be of help to Greta.
“I’ve always had great respect for women, in my life and in my professional career.”
The match took place two days after the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and the players took to the field in the Castellani Stadium with red marks on their faces to highlight the scourge of domestic abuse and to raise awareness of the anti-stalking hotline 1522.
It was the centrepiece in a high-profile Serie A campaign called ‘Give violence against women the red card’.
