Football News

David Abraham: Frankfurt captain gets seven-week ban for knocking down rival coach during match

By James Richards

Published: 16:33, 14 November 2019 | Updated: 23:08, 20 September 2022

Frankfurt captain David Abraham has been banned for seven weeks by the German Football Federation (DFB) for barging Freiburg coach Christian Streich.

The Argentine left the opposition coach flat on his back after barging him to the floor in Sunday’s Bundesliga encounter.

Abraham’s seven-week ban: Five things to know…

  • The incident occurred as the game between Freiburg and Frankfurt entered stoppage time with the hosts leading 1-0.
  • As the ball went into touch, Abraham chased it down, eager to restart play.
  • As he ran past Freiburg coach Streich, the defender barged the 54-year-old manager to the floor.
  • Following the ensuing chaos, Abraham was shown a straight red card.
  • The DFB have confirmed the Frankfurt captain has been banned for seven weeks as punishment.

The DFB took the incident very seriously and have reacted accordingly with a lengthy ban for the Frankfurt captain. With the game ticking into stoppage time the Argentine chased the ball as it went out of play by the home side’s dugout.

The 33-year-old ran straight into the Freiburg coach, causing a furious reaction from those on the opposition bench. Match referee Felix Brych sent the Frankfurt captain off before also showing a red to Freiburg’s midfielder Vincenzo Grifo for his angry reaction to the incident.

The seven-week ban, which runs from November 16 until December 29, will see Abraham miss all the remaining fixtures in 2019, a total of six games.

He has also received a fine of €25,000 (£21,000) as an additional punishment for the unprecedented incident.

The club and player have since confirmed that they plan to appeal the length of the ban, giving the Abraham the chance to appear in front of a tribunal and give his comments on what took place in Sunday’s match.

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Abraham’s apology

Despite the chaos that took place during the game, Abraham revealed there was no bad blood between himself and Streich. The 33-year-old offered an apology following the incident, in which he admitted he was wrong for ‘hitting’ the Freiburg coach.

“I would like to formally apologize to Christian Streich. I wanted to get the ball back into the game as quickly as possible in injury time and shouldn’t have hit him,” he said in a statement posted on Eintracht Frankfurt’s Twitter profile.

“I’m very happy that we spoke after the match and that everything is good between us.

Frankfurt currently sit ninth in the Bundesliga table, eight points behind current leaders Borussia Monchengladbach.

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