Bayern's Ribery slapped with two-match cup ban

Bayern's Ribery slapped with two-match cup ban

Bayern Munich's French winger Franck Ribery was banned for two German Cup matches on Thursday after being sent off against Augsburg and will miss the quarter-final at home to holders Borussia Dortmund.

Referee Thorsten Kinhoefer shows the red card to Bayern Munich's French midfielder Franck Ribery (centre) during the German Cup match against FC Augsburg in Augsburg on December 18, 2012. Ribery was banned for two German Cup matches on Thursday after being sent off against Augsburg and will miss the quarter-final at home to holders Borussia Dortmund.

Ribery was shown a straight red card on Tuesday for an altercation with Augsburg's South Korea midfielder Koo Ja-Cheol early in the second-half of Bayern's 2-0 win.

The sports court of the German Football Federation (DFB) has banned the French star for the quarter-final against Dortmund at Munich's Allianz Arena on February 26 or 27, as well as April's semi-final, should Bayern advance.

"We do not see a solution to avoid the minimum sentence of a two-match suspension for such a gesture," said Bayern boss, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge on the club's website after Ribery made contact with Koo's face during the incident.

"The club and the player have decided to accept the DFB's decision. We regret that Franck will not be available for us."

Rummenigge had previously defended Ribery, calling for the DFB to review the incident and was hoping for the red card to be reversed, as had happened to Dortmund defender Marcel Schmelzer earlier this month.

The 24-year-old Schmelzer was dismissed for a handball against Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga on December 8, but the DFB later overturned the red card and ruled referee Wolfgang Stark had made a mistake.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT