JOHN Beaton, the Scottish referee, has received an apology from Salem Al Dosari, the Saudi Arabian who headbutted him.
The Al Hilal player made the shocking assault in a hot-tempered derby against Al Nasr in Riyadh last weekend and was handed a six-game ban by the Saudi FA and also fined £3,370.
Now he has issued a video apology to apologise to Beaton, who was invited to take charge of the powderkeg game by the Saudi football authorities.
Al Dosari said: "I would like to sincerely apologise to the referee for my actions in the game against Al Nasr. Also, I owe my team mates, my club and our supporters an apology too. No man is infallible and I made a terrible error.
"But the mistake will never be repeated and I believe a successful person is one who is able to learn from his errors. I want to put this incident behind me, accept my punishment and concentrate on helping Al Hilal be successful in the AFC Champions League tournament."
His club's president, Mohammad Al-Homaidani, was also fined £8,445 for suggesting that Beaton had favoured Al Nasr. Al Hilal were fined £1,688 for having eight players booked in the game.
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