“We can confirm that the club has appealed the length of Rodrigo Bentancur’s FA suspension, issued earlier this week,” Spurs said. “While we accept the finding of guilt against Rodrigo by the independent regulatory commission, we believe the subsequent sanction is severe. Rodrigo will remain suspended from national competitions while the appeal is heard and the Club will make no further comment during this time.”
Bentancur was sanctioned after an interview in the summer, in which he told Uruguayan television in reference to Son: “Sonny, or one of Sonny’s cousins, since they all look more or less the same.” The independent panel concluded that this constituted an aggravated breach of FA regulations as it included a reference to his team-mate’s “ethnic origin, colour, race, nationality”. Bentancur initially denied the accusation.
Given that Spurs accepted the ban but are contesting the position, Bentancur’s absence would likely be long. FA regulations require a minimum suspension duration of six games for aggravated breaches of Rule E3.1. This ban can be shortened if it can be argued that the player could not reasonably have known that his comments would be offensive; There does not seem to be any obvious argument for this in the case of Bentancur.
As the regulatory commission noted in its filing, Bentancur’s infraction “requires an immediate suspension of 6 to 12 games, with six games being the ‘standard minimum’ punishment. While written submissions for the player vaguely suggest that a sanction of less than six games could or should be imposed here, it cannot be said that any exception to that minimum applies.
The seventh match of Bentancur’s ban, which only applies to domestic matches, is currently the home game against Liverpool on December 22. Before that, Tottenham will face Manchester City, Fulham, Bournemouth, Chelsea and Southampton in the Premier League before an EFL Cup tie against Manchester United.
