Dembele will effectively miss the upcoming El Clasico with Real Madrid on October 26 through suspension after he was given a two-game ban for his actions towards referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz.
The Spanish champions have confirmed they plan to appeal the sanction, but Rivaldo thinks they should be talking to the 22-year-old too.
The former Barcelona man believes the club need to have ‘internal structures’ that deals with players who act silly.
“Barcelona need to have words of their own with the player about this silly sending off. It’s not acceptable and it could harm the team, with his absence creating difficulties for his team-mates,” he told Betfair.
“It’s important for the club to have an internal procedure to sanction players in these kind of foolish situations, in which you have inappropriate talking to a referee or manager. It makes sense to punish him in some way to avoid new situations in the future.
“I’m not referring to Dembele only, but to any player that might commit a similar action. A player needs to be smart, be aware that there are more matches to play after that, and don’t let his team-mates, manager and club in a tough situation.”
Barcelona are currently second on the league table after their big win against Sevilla and they will be facing Eibar at the Estadio Ipurua Municipal after the international break
