Bayern's Ribéry ruled out of Champions League final

AFP - Bayern Munich's French playmaker Franck Ribery will not play in Saturday's Champions League final after his appeal against a three match ban was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Monday.

"The CAS Panel has dismissed the appeal and confirmed the three-game suspension imposed by the UEFA Appeals Body on the Bayern Munich player Franck Ribery," international sport's top court said.

"Accordingly, the player will not be eligible to play in the final of the 2010 Champions League," it added in a statement.

European football's governing body imposed a three-match suspension on Ribery after he was sent off for a foul in the Champions League semi-final first leg clash with Lyon.

Bayern had been trying to overturn or cut the UEFA penalty before Bayern's Champions League final against Inter Milan on Saturday.

Ribery had earlier appeared at the hearing at CAS headquarters in the Swiss city of Lausanne with Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and club lawyers.

The German side had lost a first appeal at UEFA last week.

Rummenigge has acknowledged a foul but insisted that the ban penalty was too harsh for a hard tackle and should be reduced to one match.

UEFA officials felt his tackle on Lyon striker Lisandro Lopez was dangerous and tantamount to an assault.

The CAS said it would issue its full reasons in a few days, but the court's secretary general, Matthieu Reeb, told AFP that arbitrators were reluctant to interfere in refereeing judgements.

"The CAS, in accordance with regular practice, was very prudent in ruling on circumstances on the field of play," he explained, adding that it was a "borderline case."

Ribery has already served one match of his European ban by being sidelined from the second leg in Lyon on April 27.