Tottenham have appealed against the length of Rodrigo Bentancur’s seven-game suspension for his comments about teammate and South Korean star Son Heung-min.
Bentancur was banned by the Football Association on Monday, which ruled him out of six English Premier League fixtures and a League Cup quarterfinal against Manchester United.
The 27-year-old Uruguayan midfielder was charged with misconduct in September over a television interview he gave in his home country in June when his reference to Son’s race made it an aggravated breach. Tottenham, however, are unhappy with the number of games Bentancur will miss and released a statement on Wednesday confirming their intention to appeal.
“While we accept the guilty finding against Rodrigo by the independent regulatory commission, we believe the subsequent sanction is severe,” the club statement read. “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 asked during an interview to show the shirt of a Tottenham player and replied: “Sonny’s? It could be Sonny’s cousin too as they all look the same.”
He apologised on Instagram to Son for his remarks, and Son accepted that apology in a statement on the same platform. “I’ve spoken with Lolo [Bentancur]. He made a mistake, he knows this and has apologised,” the South Korea captain said. “Lolo would not mean to ever intentionally say something offensive. We are brothers and nothing has changed at all.”
Bentancur was also fined 100,000 pounds ($126,000) with the disciplinary panel insisting it should have been “reasonably foreseeable” to him that his remarks about Son would be widely distributed.
The panel said they took into account as mitigation his apology and previous clean disciplinary record.