London, Nov 20 (IANS): Tottenham Hotspur have announced they will appeal to the Football Association (FA) regarding Rodrigo Bentancur’s seven-game ban on counts of racist remarks on South Korean teammate and captain Heung Min Son by the sport's governing body in the country.
“We can confirm that the club has appealed against the length of Rodrigo Bentancur’s FA suspension, issued earlier this week. While we accept the guilty finding against Rodrigo by the independent regulatory commission, we believe the subsequent sanction is severe," the club said in a release on Wednesday.
“Rodrigo will remain suspended from domestic competitions while the appeal is heard and the Club will make no further comment during this time,” read the statement by Tottenham Hotspur.
Alongside the ban by the FA, Rodrigo will also have to pay a 100,000-pound fine for a breach of FA Rule E3 in relation to a media interview.
The 27-year-old midfielder will now miss the league games against Manchester City, Fulham, Bournemouth, Chelsea, Southampton and Liverpool. He will also be banned for the Carabao Cup quarter-final against Manchester United on December 19. Despite the ban in domestic competitions, Bentancur will be available to play for the club in the Europa League.
While on Uruguayan TV in June, Bentancur had talked about the Spurs' captain Son and made a distasteful joke about how ‘all South Koreans look the same’. Following the incident, Rodrigo had taken to social media and posted a public apology to his captain.
"Sony 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!” read the post.
The Spurs captain also replied to Bentancur’s apology in an interview in June.
"I've spoken to Lolo. He made a mistake, he knows this and has apologised. Lolo would not mean to ever intentionally say something offensive. We are brothers and nothing has changed at all. We're past this, we're united, and we will be back together in pre-season to fight for our club as one,” said Son.