Douglas Costa Issued Four-Game Ban For Spitting Incident

Photo credit to sampulbola.com via Flickr

Serie A

Douglas Costa Issued Four-Game Ban For Spitting Incident

Juventus winger Douglas Costa has received a four Serie A game ban after spitting at Federico Di Francesco during class with Sassuolo.

However, the Brazil international ended up receiving a red card for the series of offenses against Di Francesco.

The first incident took place when Costa delivered an elbow to the Sassuolo forward in the face. In addition, he then planted a headbutt on the son of Roma manager Eusebio Di Francesco.

Last, Costa spat on Di Francesco’s mouth after the two begun arguing. However, it wasn’t until a VAR review that the Brazilian received a red card.

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Gostaria de pedir desculpas a todos os torcedores da Juventus por essa minha reação equivocada no jogo de hoje. Peço também desculpas aos meus companheiros de time, que estão sempre comigo nos momentos bons e ruins. Errei feio, tenho consciência e venho me desculpar com todos por isso. Deixo claro que essa atitude isolada não condiz com o que sempre mostrei em minha carreira. Douglas Costa Vorrei scusarmi con tutti i fan della Juventus per questa reazione fuorviante nel gioco di oggi. Mi scuso anche con i miei compagni di squadra, che sono sempre con me nei momenti belli e cattivi. Ero brutto, ne sono consapevole e mi scuso con tutti per questo. Metto in chiaro che questo atteggiamento isolato non corrisponde a quello che ho sempre dimostrato nella mia carriera. Douglas Costa @juventus

A post shared by DC11 (@douglascosta) on Sep 16, 2018 at 9:47am PDT

In addition, Costa went on Instagram to apologize to to his teammates and fans for the inconvenient succession. He also added that Di Francesco had made racial slurs against the Juventus player as mentioned in ESPN.

However, Di Francesco came out and rejected any of the claims made about him:

“I am profoundly upset by the allegations and the inventions which have appeared on various national media outlets,” he said. “All of this is offensive and denigratory.

“I will not allow racist behavior and/or phrases that do not pertain to to my values and ethics, and that are fruits of the imagination of others, be attributed to me. I ask for and demand respect.”

Costa suspension will have him miss matches against Frosinone, Bologna, Napoli and Udinese.

Many, however, were considering extending his suspension to Champions League. Being that this is a different competition, this will not happen.

Photo credit to sampulbola.com via Flickr