Tottenham appeal Rodrigo Bentancur’s seven game ban for comments referencing Heung-Min Son’s ‘ethnic origin’

Tottenham have launched an appeal over the seven-game ban handed to midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur for comments he made over teammate Heung-Min Son. Spurs do not dispute the guilty verdict handed down by an independent commission but believe the Football Association’s punishment is too “severe.”

“We can confirm that the club has appealed against the length of Rodrigo Bentancur’s FA suspension, issued earlier this week,” said Spurs. “While we accept the guilty finding against Rodrigo by the independent regulatory commission, we believe the subsequent sanction is severe. Rodrigo will remain suspended from domestic competitions while the appeal is heard and the Club will make no further comment during this time.”

Bentancur was sanctioned following an interview in the summer, telling Uruguayan TV in reference to Son: “Sonny, or one of Sonny’s cousins, as they all look more or less the same.” The independent panel found that this constituted an aggravated breach of FA regulations given that it included a reference to his teammate’s “ethnic origin, colour, race, nationality”. Bentancur initially denied the charge.

Given that Spurs have accepted the sanction but are disputing the charge, Bentancur’s absence would likely still be a lengthy one. FA regulations require a minimum ban length of six games for aggravated breaches of Rule E3.1. This ban can be shortened if a case can be made that the player could not have reasonably known that his comments would cause offence; there would appear to be no obvious argument for that in Bentancur’s case.

As the regulatory commission noted in its submission, Bentancur’s breach “requires an immediate suspension of 6-12 matches, six matches being the ‘Standard Minimum’ punishment. While the Written Submissions for the Player vaguely suggest that a sanction of less than six matches might or should be imposed here, no exception to that minimum arguably applies.”

The seventh match of Bentancur’s ban, which only applies to domestic fixtures, is currently the match at home to Liverpool on December 22. Before that Tottenham face Manchester City, Fulham, Bournemouth, Chelsea and Southampton in the Premier League before an EFL Cup tie against Manchester United.

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