Attoub to appeal his ban
January 22 2010
Stade Français prop David Attoub is set to appeal the 70-week ban he received for gouging the eye of Stephen Ferris on December 19.
Attoub still maintains that he did not intentionally gouge the eyes of Ulster flank Stephen Ferris, while Guazzini has called the record ban a decision of 'an over zealous judge and with an anti-French bias.'
The length of the ban means that Attoub will essentially not be allowed to play top-flight rugby before his 31st birthday which could well signal the end of his career.
While Judge Jeff Blackett called the incriminating incident he 'worst act of contact with the eyes that I have had to deal with', the French prop insists that photo evidence used against him was taken out of context.
"I was fighting with a player, number seventeen (Bryan Young).Two or three other players got onto me and I tried to get out of a precarious situation," Attoub told Lesite.
"The judge decided that I was guilty on the evidence of photos. I was on his face for only 25 thousandths of a second. There was a photo expert to show that it was not intentional.
"I'm guilty of fighting with number seventeen. There's no problem with that. I received a yellow card and I apologised."
"I did nothing intentionally," he said in another interview with Rugbyrama.
"I was fighting with number seventeen and didn't know were my hand was. I was blocked under a pile of players.
"Seventy weeks is hard to understand. Don't forget that it was the same judge that banned Marius Tincu and Julien Dupuy.
"We're going to appeal to the ERC. Then we will turn to the LNR and the CNOSF (Comité National Olympique et Sportif Français)."