Players in Serie A this weekend are sporting a red mark on their cheeks as part of a campaign challenging violence against women and spreading awareness of an anti-stalking hotline.
Every year for several seasons now, the Lega Serie A has participated in the campaign Un Rosso Alla Violenza – A red card to violence.
Players were also urged to contribute via social media with their wives and partners, showing the women wearing red lipstick and the same shade smeared on the cheeks of the star names.
The captains have a special edition armband this weekend also referencing the campaign.
There is a special hotline in Italy for women to report stalking or violence, the phone number is 1522.
Calls to that hotline rose by 79.5 per cent over the last calendar year.
Italy was shocked by an incident earlier this month in Sassuolo, where a man killed his ex-wife, their two children and his mother-in-law before killing himself.
He had been under a restraining order, but broke it to commit the massacre.
The only survivor was the woman’s 11-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, who was at school at the time.