January 8 – Bayern Munich are to impose a “heavy fine” on former French international Franck Ribery over an obscenity-laced outburst on social media.
The punishment comes after Ribery lashed out at critics in a string of angry posts on Twitter and Instagram at the weekend after he became embroiled in controversy for eating a steak coated with actual gold in a bizarre and ostentatious stunt.
“I had a long talk with Franck and I let him know that we would impose a heavy fine on him and he accepted it,” Bayern’s sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic said.
“He used words that we, FC Bayern, cannot accept and that Franck does not have the right to use, as a role-model and player of FC Bayern”
Ribery, who played 81 times for France, has won eight Bundesliga titles with Bayern as well as the 2013 Champions League.
Last week the 35-year-old posted a video on social media showing him in a steak house owned by a celebrity Turkish restaurateur before tucking in. The reported cost of the meal drew ferocious criticism before Ribery – who earns an estimated €8 million a year with the German champions – hit back on Saturday.
“Let’s start with the envious, the angry, surely born because of a broken condom,” read the first of the posts on Ribery’s Twitter account. “F*** your mothers, your grandmothers and your whole family tree,” wrote Ribery in the first of three irate posts.
Salihamidzic made clear that Ribery did not pay the bill himself because he had been invited to the restaurant. He also acknowledged that the player had been responding to a flurry of insults.
“Franck has been slandered and insulted,” said Salihamidzic. “And not only Franck, but his pregnant wife, his child and his mother, who is currently in hospital for an operation. Franck wanted to defend himself and defend his family. He has the right to do that. I support him in that, but unfortunately he totally lost control.”
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