46-year-old Ricardo Portillo died after a 17-year-old player punched him in the face

Ricardo Portillo, 46, a veteran soccer referee, died yesterday after a week long battle with swelling in his brain. Portillo was punched in the face by a 17-year-old goalie, playing his first game for the La Liga Continental de Futbol squad in Utah.

Portillo issued the player, whose name has not been released, a yellow card after the player pushed an opponent as he was trying to score a goal. As Portillo was writing the yellow card, the player, who was arguing the call, punched him in the side of the head.

At first Portillo seemed ok, but sat down after feeling dizzy, and paramedics were called. When they arrived, “He was laying on the ground, on his left side in a fetal position,” said Officer Jason Huggard, who responded to the scene. “Ricardo was complaining of pain in his face, back and [of] being nauseated. … He had spit up a small amount of blood in his saliva.”

He was taken to the hospital where his condition worsened and he fell into a coma. Portillo’s 26-year-old daughter Johanna said she and her sisters had begged her father to quit refereeing after he was attacked before, but he wouldn’t have it.

“It was his passion,” she said. “We could not tell him no.”

The player left the scene of the attack but has been arrested and put into juvenile detention for investigation of aggravated assault. Detectives say that new charges are likely.

The family held a vigil at Portillo’s home on Sunday.