Franck Ribéry Speaks Out After 'Slapping' Journalist In The Face

Franck Ribéry has admitted that he was involved in an altercation with a reporter.

Patrick Guillou claimed on TV that the 35-year-old winger was responsible for Borussia Dortmund scoring twice against Bayern Munich. In response, the former France international allegedly 'slapped and insulted' the reporter, Bild reports.

According to the German newspaper, the Bundesliga champions issued a statement regarding the incident.

"Franck Ribéry has informed us that he had an altercation with his compatriot Patrick Guillou, whom he has known well for many years," the club said.

"We agreed with Patrick Guillou that we would speak at a meeting about how to get this matter out of the way."

Bayern Munich started off strong against their rivals on Saturday when Robert Lewandowski opened the scoring and the club went into half-time with a 1-0 lead.

Marco Reus would equalise for Dortmund from the spot kick, with the Polish striker once again called into action to restore the Bavarians lead. However, the 29-year-old German midfielder would level for Dortmund before Paco Alcácer scored the winner in the 3-2 thriller.

Dortmund remains top of the Bundesliga and have opened a seven-point rift over third-placed Bayern Munich.

"It was a crazy game," Dortmund boss Lucien Favre said after the match (via the Daily Mirror).

"Bayern was very strong, they dominated us for 25 minutes. We could not master control of the ball -- it was like a boomerang.

"Bayern was strong as maybe never before this season, but I had the feeling that they would not be able to keep the pace.

"After Reus' goal, the crowd was there and we felt that we could win. The morale of the players was fantastic."

The defeat puts more pressure on the under-fire Niko Kovač, who has struggled to maintain momentum with Bayern Munich this season. However, he remained optimistic about the future.

"We saw a fantastic football match from both sides," he said. "In the first half, we had the game in hand, then in the second half, Dortmund did. Unfortunately, we lost the game, even though it could have been a draw.

"You can be satisfied with the performance. That was the best game since Schalke -- skillful, combative and tactical, especially in the first half.

"We will have to build on that and deliver more games in the future."

Can Dortmund win the Bundesliga?

Let us know in the comments.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Football News, Football, Franck Ribery, Bayern Munich

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz is a journalist for SPORTbible. He studied for a B.A. in History at the University of York and followed it up with an M.A. in Multimedia Journalism at MMU. Before he started writing about sports, he spent over four years in the gaming press. He has worked for several publications, including Hardcore Gamer, LADbible and the Manchester Evening News. Follow him on Twitter to find out what he is working on next. Got a story tip for Adnan? Email him: [email protected]

@AdnanRiaz9