Rodrigo Bentancur has been banned for seven domestic matches by the Football Association for using a racial slur against his Tottenham teammate Son Heung-min.
The midfielder, who has also been fined £100,000, denied the charge, which the FA brought in September and described as an “aggravated breach” of its rules as it included a “reference to nationality and/or race and/or ethnic origin.” It related to a TV interview that Bentancur gave in June while in Uruguay. In it, he was asked to provide a shirt belonging to a Spurs player. “Sonny’s?” Bentancur replied. “It could be Sonny’s cousin too as they all look the same.”
The independent regulatory commission found the charge to be proven and the suspension will begin immediately, ruling Bentancur out of Spurs’s Premier League games against Manchester City, Fulham, Bournemouth, Chelsea, Southampton and Liverpool, plus the Carabao Cup quarter-final against Manchester United. He will be available again for the trip to Nottingham Forest on Boxing Day. Bentancur can continue to play in the club’s Europa League ties.
The 27-year-old’s absence is a blow for Ange Postecoglou, who has counted on Bentancur, starting him in seven of the team’s 11 league fixtures this season, including the most recent two. He also started the former Juventus player in the previous round of the Carabao Cup last month, when Spurs beat Manchester City.
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Bentancur said sorry to Son in private after the interview was broadcast and also issued a public apology. “Sonny brother! I am sorry for what happened, it was a joke in bad taste,” he wrote on social media. “You know that I love you and would never disrespect you, or hurt you or anyone. I love you brother!”
Son revealed in September that Bentancur had “almost cried” when apologising to him. “I love Rodrigo,” Son said. “I repeat, I love him, I love him. He knew and he apologised straight afterwards. We are all human and all make mistakes and we learn from it.”
Speaking about the incident on Monday, Spurs defender Ben Davies said: “I think that as a group, as a team at Tottenham, we’ve all put a line under it and moved on. But, ultimately, it’s important that we realise that these kind of things need to be looked at with the seriousness that it has been.”