Douglas Costa has issued a public apology for spitting at Sassuolo’s Federico Di Francesco and faces a three match ban.
The Juventus winger was caught on camera spitting as well as headbutting and elbowing Di Francesco and faces retrospective action for his behaviour – Costa took to Instagram to issue a an apology shortly after the game:
“I want to apologise to all the Juventus fans for this over the top reaction I had during today’s game.
“I also apologise to my teammates, who are always by my side, in good and bad times. It was ugly, I am aware of that and I apologise to everyone for that.
“I want to make clear that this isolated conduct has nothing to do with what I’ve shown throughout my career.”
FIGC prosecutor Giuseppe Pecoraro has confirmed that the evidence against the player will be reviewed “starting from the elbow, to asses the behaviour of the Juventus player as a whole.”
Juventus coach Max Allegri also confirmed that the club would be tacking action against the Brazilian:
“Maybe he was irritated at a foul before, but it doesn’t matter, because this absolutely must not happen. The one thing we must avoid doing is falling for provocation. He will be fined and punished by Juventus.”
The spitting incident alone could earn Costa a ban for at least three game, meaning he will miss the matches against Frosinone, Bologna and Napoli in Turin and may have to pay a hefty fnie in the region of €200,000.
This is going to be a huge story in world football. Douglas Costa spits in Federico Di Francesco’s mouth during the #Juve and #Sassuolo game. pic.twitter.com/IXyYDClct8
— Eleven Sports (@ElevenSports_UK) September 16, 2018