Tottenham star Rodrigo Bentancur has faced a seven-match domestic ban by the Football Association (FA) for making an alleged racist remark about teammate Son Heung-min during a TV interview.
During an appearance on a show in his home country in June, the interviewer asked Bentancur about Son Heung-min’s jersey, to which Bentancur responded, “maybe from his cousin,” adding, “they all look the same.”
The FA confirmed earlier this year that they charged the South American for an ‘aggravated breach’ of their rules.
Breaking his silence on the incident earlier this summer, the former Juventus star took to social media to deliver a grovelling apology to Son, insisting to the Spurs captain it was a ‘very bad joke’.
He said: ‘Sonny brother! I apologise to you for what happened, it was just a very bad joke!
‘You know that I love you and I would never disrespect you or hurt you or anyone else! I love you brother!’
The South Korean revealed that Bentancur was close to tears when he apologized for the alleged racial slur.
‘At the moment because of the FA process I can’t say much about it,’ said Son in September. ‘But I love Rodrigo, I love him. We’ve a lot of good memories since we started playing together when he joined.
‘He knew and he apologised straight afterwards. We were on holiday. I was at home. I didn’t even realise what was going on when he sent me a long message and you could feel it was coming from his heart.
‘When we came back for pre-season he felt really sorry, and almost cried when he apologised publicly and personally as well. He felt like he was really sorry. We are all human and all make mistakes and we learn from it.’
The FA has now confirmed Bentancur’s punishment.
An FA spokesperson said: ‘An independent regulatory commission has imposed a seven-match suspension and £100,000 fine on Rodrigo Bentancur for a breach of FA Rule E3 in relation to a media interview.
‘It was alleged that the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder breached FA Rule E3.1 as he acted in an improper manner and/or used abusive and/or insulting words and/or brought the game into disrepute.
‘It was further alleged that this constitutes an ‘aggravated breach’, which is defined in FA Rule E3.2, as it included a reference – whether express or implied – to nationality and/or race and/or ethnic origin.
‘Rodrigo Bentancur denied this charge, but the independent Regulatory Commission found it to be proven and imposed his sanctions following a hearing.’
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