Frankfurt captain Abraham banned seven games for barging coach

Berlin (AFP) – Eintracht Frankfurt captain David Abraham will not play again in 2019 after being banned until December 29 and fined 25,000 euros ($27,530) on Wednesday for barging Freiburg coach Christian Streich during a Bundesliga match.

A sports court of the German Football Association (DFB) hit Abraham with the hefty fine and seven-week ban for “assaulting an opponent” after shoulder barging Streich on the sidelines of Sunday’s league game.

Eintracht Frankfurt immediately said they will appeal “in order to give David Abraham the opportunity” to explain his side of the story.

The 33-year-old Argentinian was shown a red card for hitting Streich, 54, with his shoulder after the ball had gone out of play at the end of a bad-tempered German league match. Hosts Freiburg won 1-0 thanks to Nils Petersen’s second-half goal, which left them fourth in the table.

Freiburg winger Vincenzo Grifo, who was already off the pitch having been substituted, was also shown a red card on the bench for grabbing Abraham by the throat in the ensuing melee.

Abraham has already apologised “in all forms” for the incident and according to top-selling daily newspaper Bild, had already been fined 35,000 euros by his club, which is to be donated to charity.

On Tuesday at a DFB function in Freiburg, Streich said he was “really annoyed” by the fuss around Abraham’s barge.

Emotions were running high in a highly-charged game and Streich insisted “David is not a bad person, he is a nice guy”.

Frankfurt coach Adi Huetter has already said Abraham will remain club captain.

“The incident itself cannot be excused, but we are not nailing him to the wall over it. There is no discussion, David Abraham remains our captain”, insisted the Austrian, whose side are ninth in Germany’s top flight.