The English Football Association rejects Tottenham’s appeal to lift Rodrigo Bentancur’s ban for racist comments.
Tottenham have lost their appeal against Uruguayan midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur’s strict seven-match ban for making an offensive comment about South Koreans in connection with a remark about Spurs teammate Son Heung-min.
The football association announced this on Tuesday The appeal of Spurs was dismissed after a hearing and the sanction remains in place. The reasons for the decision will be published shortly.
Bentancur has already suspended for five home gamesand will miss the English League Cup quarter-final game against Manchester United on Thursday and the visit of Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday.
When Bentancur appeared on a Uruguayan television program in June, he was asked about a Tottenham player’s jersey and replied: “Sonny’s?” He added that it could also be Son’s cousin because “more or less they are all the same.”
Bentancur later apologized to Son on Instagram, saying it was a “very bad joke” and that he would “never disrespect or hurt you.” Son accepted the apology.
Details of the decision released by the independent commission showed that Bentancur said his comments were “sarcastic and a gentle rebuke” to the journalist who called his teammate “the Korean” and that he questioned the reporter’s description of Son .
However, in its conclusions, the Regulatory Commission wrote: “Even based on the player’s evidence and submissions, we consider the player’s conduct in using the words he used to be clearly abusive and in the full context in which they were used.” offensive and would amount to misconduct.”
The commission added that it also took into account the fact that Bentancur had no intention to offend Son or anyone else.
Bentancur was also fined $126,000 by the commission.
