The FA’s decision to hand Rodrigo Bentancur as seven-game ban for racism has been upheld.
The Tottenham midfielder gave a TV interview back in his homeland of Uruguay in which he made offensive remarks about club teammate Son Heung-min.
The FA slapped down a lengthy ban as well as a £100,000 fine.
An independent regulatory panel has now ruled on it and upheld the governing body’s decision meaning both the suspension and the fine stand.
Tottenham’s Rodrigo Bentancur can face Rangers despite Son reacism
In a TV interview, the Uruguay star was asked by the interviewer if he could a hold of Son’s shirt.
Bentancur responded by saying it could be his cousin’s as ‘they all look the same’.
The 27-year-old apologised to Son and has been forgiven by the South Korea international.
But he will still miss a string of matches for Spurs and will next be available to Ange Postecoglou domestically for the Boxing Day clash with Nottingham Forest.
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During that spell, Tottenham are in Glasgow to face Rangers in the Europa League.
But Postecoglou WILL be able to pick Bentancur for the December 12 Ibrox clash against Philippe Clement’s side.
That’s because the ban only applies to domestic matches and the midfielder can play his part in European clashes.
Whether the former Celtic boss decides to use him after his disciplinary breach, and also amid a lack of action, remains to be seen.
Nice treat Rangers as must-win
Rangers actually have another Europa League game to take care of before the Tottenham one as they travel to face Nice on November 28.
The French side haven’t had a great start to the league phase and will be scrambling for the points to get them through.
That’s why manager Franck Haise is treating Rangers as a must-win game.
He said: “It’s very clear if we want to continue our progress in this competition, we must win our next game against Rangers at home.
“That game will be decisive along with our last game of the year against Union Saint-Gilloise.
“We have to win because we have not managed to do that after four games.
“We can say that we managed to be resilient and the 2-2 draw is good because it looked unlikely at one stage.
“But I cannot ignore the first hour against Twente because we were not at the required level.
“We lost two players late on to injury and that had an impact, but I have to take responsibility for not winning a game yet.”