Paris (AFP) – Lorient striker Benjamin Jeannot has been suspended pending a disciplinary hearing after pushing a referee during his team’s 3-0 home loss to Bastia last weekend, the French football league (LFP) announced on Thursday.

The LFP announced they were taking the decision based on the “brutality of the act”.

The 24-year-old will be suspended from Friday until his hearing on September 15 when his suspension could be extended.

Jeannot was sent off by referee Amaury Delerue after he had been pushed following a tussle in the Bastia penalty area where Lorient striker Majeed Waris should have been awarded a penalty.

On Sunday the French elite referee committee had called for acts like that to be “abolished from French football”, adding that it came at a moment when “authorities are trying to improve the quality of the league and attract more people, acts like these tarnish the image of the league”.