Bitter news for Julian Nagelsmann and the DFB team: Leroy Sané from FC Bayern remains suspended for the German national team’s next three international matches and will therefore be missing from the national coach until shortly before the start of the home European Championship.
The world association FIFA rejected the appeal against the penalty for Sané’s sending off in the test match in Austria, as the German Football Association announced.
This means that legal recourse within FIFA has been exhausted. The FC Bayern Munich attacker was shown a red card in the 2-0 defeat in Vienna on November 21st after an assault in the 49th minute.
The 28-year-old will definitely miss the test matches on March 23rd in France and on March 26th against the Netherlands and would also be missing in the first of two planned games so far in direct preparation for the finals.
A ban for European Championship games, which, unlike the test in Austria, are compulsory games, would not have been possible. The first opponent in the final round is Scotland on June 14th, followed by the preliminary round games against Hungary and Switzerland.
During the game in Austria, Sané knocked down his opponent Phillipp Mwene with a punch after a duel at the beginning of the second half and received a red card from the Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic. FIFA initially imposed a minimum ban of three games for the offense. Immediately after the game, Sané apologized.