Tottenham have lodged an appeal against the length of the seven-game domestic ban on Rodrigo Bentancur. The Uruguayan was given the ban following a racist slur about teammate Son Heung-min. While the club has accepted the guilty ruling from an independent regulatory commission, it has said that the punishment by the FA was “severe.” Bentancur was also given a £100,000 fine and ordered to take part in a mandatory face-to-face education programme.
This comes after he was charged by the FA for comments made on Uruguayan TV. The player denied the charges and is currently suspended from domestic matches until 26th December, meaning that he will miss Premier League games Manchester City, Liverpool, and Chelsea, as well as the Carabao Cup quarter-final against Manchester United. He will still be available for Europa League games. The midfielder will remain suspended while the appeal is heard.
When charging Bentancur, the FA said that it was “an alleged breach of FA rule E3 for misconduct in relation to a media interview.” The offence, it added, “aggravated breach as it included a reference, whether express or implied, to nationality and/or race and/or ethnic origin.” Such a breach, according to the commission, “requires an immediate suspension of 6-12 matches.”
In the interview on Uruguayan TV, a presenter asked for a Tottenham shirt, to which Bentancur replied “Sonny’s? It could be Sonny’s cousin too as they all look the same.”
He later apologised on social media for what he called a “very bad joke” and apologised to his teammate, South Korean striker Son, who said he would “not mean to ever intentionally say something offensive.”
His club released the following statement: “We can confirm that the club has appealed against the length of Rodrigo Bentancur’s FA suspension, issued earlier this week. While we accept the guilty finding against Rodrigo by the independent regulatory commission, we believe the subsequent sanction is severe.”
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