Champions League - Ribery appeal rejected, out of final

Reuters - Wed, 05 May 19:00:00 2010

Bayern Munich will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after UEFA upheld a three-match ban that will keep Franck Ribery out of the Champions League final.

FOOTBALL - 2009/2010 - Bayern - Ribéry - 0

Appealing to CAS in such circumstances is highly unusual but Bayern described the ruling as harsh and said Ribery was disappointed and sad to be missing the final against Internazionale.

The French playmaker, who has already served one match of the ban, was dismissed before halftime in the first leg of the semi-final against Olympique Lyon for a studs-up challenge on Lisandro Lopez.

"We will keep on fighting," Bayer chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said.

"We're not happy with the decision here and we will take the decision to CAS in Lausanne.

"For him to miss the Champions League final for an offence of foul play is just too harsh," he added.

"Foul play should be punished with a one-match ban, those are the UEFA statutes but they have not followed them," added Rummenigge. "It's much too harsh."

Bayern said in a statement last week that UEFA had found Ribery, who attended the meeting but did not comment, guilty of assault.

"Given the outcome of the proceedings, Bayern Munich and the player have the right to lodge an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport," UEFA said.

A UEFA spokesman said appeals could be taken to CAS for bans lasting for two matches or more.

In practice, however, it is very unusual for matters concerning bans for incidents on the field to go to CAS, which usually deals with contractual and off-field disputes.

World soccer's governing body's statutes differ from UEFA's and only allow an appeal when a player is banned for four games or over, or a minimum three-month period.

Ribery and fellow international Sydney Govou were questioned in April as witnesses by police investigating a prostitution network.

French media have said the players were clients of a nightclub in the posh Champs-Elysees district of Paris which allegedly featured escort girls.

Ribery's lawyer has said her client was only questioned about his ties with the leader of an escort girl network and the player has made no comment about the affair.

Reuters

Comment 6 - 25 of 25

Sort comments by: Most recent | Most rated

  1. Rules must apply to all without exception. Ribbery you­ are no exception. Behave next time.

    From John Kennedy, on Wed 12 May 22:29

  2. Seems Ribery likes getting himself into holes but­ expects to be dug out of them by
    others; a rather­ immature attitude for a man old enough and certainly­ ugly enough to know better.Pity the Paris prostitutes­ that put up with him!

    From The Spectator, on Mon 10 May 17:54

  3. Seems Ribery likes getting himself into holes but­ expects to be dug out of them by
    others; a rather­ immature attitude for a man old enough and certainly­ ugly enough to know better.Pity the Paris prostitutes­ that put up with him!

    From The Spectator, on Mon 10 May 17:50

  4. The important thing to me is : Man.Utd. was eleminated­ at the hands of Great Bayern.... The Great Bayern can­ beat Inter with or without Ribery.... as Great Bayern­ beat Man.Utd (2:1) without Roben..Go Bayern Go and let­ the chewing gum man and his supporters feel the heat­ ... haaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhaa.

    From mahirnor, on Sat 8 May 2:04

  5. @Grant
    what is typical german? explain it to me.

    Then­ i tell you "typical english" is...

    From Asdasdasd Sdsdsds, on Thu 6 May 17:39

  6. Dear mirsindietellervonderwandgefloge... did you watch­ the Arsenal game with Fletcher's red card? How­ come every pundit and fan saw that Fletcher actually­ got the ball and not the man ... if this was outside­ the box, this probably would have been saluted as an­ excellent foul, however the rubbish ref bottled it...­ the moment he blew for a foul, the laws of the game­ dictate a red card being the last man... when he looks­ back at this incident he realises he messed up. As­ for Rafael, he could have got a straight red for his­ first immature kick out, you see the in many other­ games - remember Rooney and Ronaldo in the world cup? ­ ... Fergie should have pulled him once he got away with­ the yellow ... as he needs to be more mature in­ important games, this is not the first time that kind­ of behaviour has cost UTD a game

    Back to Ribery, he­ was dirty, ref decided upon a red, get on with it...­ stop whining .. Fergie was right about "typical­ germans"...

    From Grant, on Thu 6 May 16:15

  7. Ban Didier Dive-ba as well pls..for life! stupid­ chelski

    From Mr. Villas Boas, on Thu 6 May 15:14

  8. It will be very interesting to see what happens after­ Darren Fletcher received a RED CARD for a mystery­ tackle in the semi final against Arsenal and ended up­ missing the final.........

    From joe blow, on Thu 6 May 12:58

  9. ha hahahahahah man u . well done bayern, chelsea, and­ mighty leeds. they have won @#$% all

    From ALAN, on Thu 6 May 6:18

  10. i used to have respect for ribery but as far as im­ concerned the little rat got what he deserved. im glad­ he wont get to play in the champions league final and­ will just have to watch his team lose. its called karma­ you whiny little @#$%

    From ryan w, on Thu 6 May 5:42

  11. @Jamie
    Like before every worldcup or Eurocup(if you can­ qualify :-D ) you think your favourite and can win the­ title! Germany like always gets no respect for being­ minimum in the semis. how much england won? (England 1­ worldcup, 3 semis, thats it!! Germany 3 worldcup, 3­ europe cups, 7 finals, 11 semis)
    And it will be a­ dejavue like everytime...

    From Asdasdasd Sdsdsds, on Thu 6 May 5:28

  12. Aurelius (comment 27) You will be able to catch­ France's exit Live at live2010worldcup. I am­ assuming you are French due to your over defensive­ attitude to Frank Ribery. Or maybe you are German,­ hopefully they will have an early exit too!

    From jamie, on Thu 6 May 5:14

  13. He got what he deserves! It's called what goes­ around comes around! He initiate the red card for­ rafael during the 2nd leg of the quarterfinals now­ he's getting it! GO INTER!

    From Patrick, on Thu 6 May 4:08

  14. Very bad decision from the UEFA!
    3 games banned is too­ hard. I mean Lisandro Lopez also said, that it was no­ assault. He was just too late.
    But normal that German­ teams have it heavier than from other countrys. If a­ english player would have missed in the final because­ of a foul like this you would scream here like the­ greeks at the moment!

    ps: Raffael made an assault in­ the first half when he kicked a bayern player and the­ ball was 5 metres aways. Soooooooooooooo please dont­ start everytime with Raffael...
    And Fletcher got the­ red card because he fouled the ARsenal player in the­ box and he was last man. And this in the second leg.­ Ribery got his red card in the first leg for a foul in­ the centre and first leg. So think about what the big­ differende is...

    From Asdasdasd Sdsdsds, on Thu 6 May 3:40

  15. great news for inter

    From ELAINE, on Thu 6 May 3:05

  16. what should gerrard get for passing to drogba to give­ cheating chelsea the PL title the fa should make dirty­ players play a game of rugby and get stamped on pinched­ gouged studded and just plane hard tackled this may­ then teach them to behave . but good luck to bayern in­ the finals . or they could just ban dirty players for­ 16 matches no playing no training at the club no­ contact with the club and not get paid that might work­ .... as for the cheat s 3 cheating incident out for­ the season that wuold stop it

    From neil685, on Thu 6 May 3:00

  17. Serves him and Bayern right for getting Rafael sent off­ against Man U, cheating blighters.

    From asfinktasezwot, on Thu 6 May 2:05

  18. @#$% fat platini! he is president now because of­ Beckenbauer's kindness. any people are not sure­ about red though,

    From Ardavan, on Thu 6 May 1:42

  19. Rules are rules, bit of a waste of the clubs time and­ money appealing though.
    He's highly charged­ that's for sure.

    From NicolaWHL, on Thu 6 May 1:13

  20. oh little anna i feel sorry for ur manu but in the end­ the same lazy shi.tt Bayern beat ur manu... how sad..­ here u get a snot rag from me

    From Eddy, on Thu 6 May 1:12
Sort comments by: Most recent | Most rated

Not already a Yahoo! user ? to get a free Yahoo! Account