Ribery slaps reporter thrice; Bayern Munich confirms altercation

Multiple witnesses described a violent altercation between Bayern Munich’s veteran winger, Franck Ribery, and a French TV expert after Bayern’s thrilling 2-3 loss to Borussia Dortmund yesterday. As reported by Bild (paywall; cf. AZ), Ribery met Patrick Guillou, who currently works as an expert for beIN Sports, on his way from the locker room to the busses at Signal Iduna Park.

Guillou, a former player and onetime assistant coach of Willy Sagnol, sought a statement from Ribery regarding the game. Suddenly, Ribery began insulting Guillou. He then slapped Guillou, who had his hands in his jacket pockets, three times across the face and shoved him away.

Guillou had allegedly blamed Ribery as partly responsible for two of Dortmund’s goals. The scuffle was quickly broken up. Guillou’s colleague, a former Bayern player Jean-Pierre Papin, was at hand, and Rafinha ran up as well. Then Ribery climbed aboard the bus.

Ribery promptly informed the club of the incident. Both he and Guillou declined to give Bild a statement, but Bayern Munich’s sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic responded to Bild’s request for a statement as follows:

Franck Ribery informed us that he had an altercation with his countryman Patrick Guillou, whom he has known well for many years. We agreed with Patrick Guillou on Saturday evening that we would soon discuss in a personally meeting how we would put this affair to rest. Mr. Guillou has already indicated that this is also in his interest.