Ribéry loses £2.25m – then gets sent off

It was a bad day all round for France and Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribéry yesterday.

In the morning he was ordered to hand over £2.25m to a former agent in unpaid commission, then in the evening he was sent off in the first half of Bayern's Bundesliga game with Cologne.

Delivering his verdict yesterday, a Luxembourg prosecutor said the disputed sum of €2.66m concerned a contract with agent Bruno Heiderscheid dating back to 2005 when Ribéry, then 22, was playing for Marseilles.

After winning the case, Heiderscheid said: "I am satisfied with the result, which is fair given the work done with Franck Ribéry for more than two years, that gave him the possibility to sign for Marseilles, to be capped by France and to become an important player."

Against Cologne, Ribéry was sent off in the 33rd minute after receiving two rapid bookings. He went down in the penalty area and lost his temper with Sereno, pushing his head after the Cologne defender told him to get up. Sereno continued to talk to Ribéry who then grabbed him by the throat and was given a second yellow card.

Fortunately for the controversial Frenchman, Bayern still won 3-0 to open up a six-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga and insure they will go into the winter break in first place. The Bayern coach, Jupp Heynckes, said: "After Franck's dismissal it was even harder for us but the team reacted very well, kept a tight defence and went forward to score the goals. We dominated the game even with 10, that was class."