Rodrigo Bentancur faces domestic ban after racially charged comments

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur is currently facing a seven match ban from domestic football after a video of him using a racial slur in reference to Spurs teammate, Heung-Min Son surfaced in June. He has also been fined £100,000 and must attend a mandatory face-to-face education programme as a result of his comments.

Owing to the ban, Bentancur will be absent from a tough run of fixtures for the club, including Premier League games against Liverpool and London rivals Chelsea, as well as their quarter-final tie with Manchester United in the Carabao Cup. He is still available for use in Spurs’ Europa League campaign and will become available for domestic football on Boxing Day, for the team’s away fixture against Nottingham Forest.

The incident occurred on Bentancur’s own time, during an interview on Uruguayan television, but because he plays in England, it fell under the jurisdiction of the FA

Whilst Bentancur denies all charges against him, the independent regulatory commission imposed the sanctions following a hearing, which concluded that the midfielder warranted punishment as the incident “included a reference… to nationality and/or race”.

The incident occurred on Bentancur’s own time, during an interview on Uruguayan television, but because he plays in England, it fell under the jurisdiction of the FA. This is unlike a similar incident in which Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez was videoed making racially charged comments about the French national football team, following Argentina’s Copa America victory earlier this year.

Any incident such as this “requires an immediate suspension of 6-12 matches” with the severity of the offence being taken into account when deciding the severity of the punishment. As Bentancur has no previous offences, it is believed that he did not intend to cause offence, and he has shown genuine remorse towards his teammate, his ban therefore falls to the shorter side of the scale.

In their response to the hearing’s result, the club claim that Bentancur was ‘challenging the journalist in his description of his club teammate’

Spurs have since appealed the length of the ban, having deemed the punishment “severe”. Whilst they accept the results of the hearing and acknowledge that the comment is “abusive and insulting, and would amount to misconduct”, they believe the subsequent sanction is incredibly strict. In their response to the hearing’s result, the club claim that Bentancur was “challenging the journalist in his description of his club teammate”, using the “sarcastic” remark to criticise the journalist’s comments about Son.

During a press conference prior to the club’s 4-0 win at the Etihad last weekend, Spurs manager, Ange Postecoglou was asked directly about the incident, as well as the choice to appeal. The Australian revealed that he is not interested in the image that the decision to appeal creates for the outside world. He believes that education is the answer to such an incident, rather than the “harsh” punishment administered.

If their appeal is successful, the midfielder will be available one match earlier, for the team’s home fixture against Liverpool on December 22nd

The club believes that Bentancur should have received the minimum ban of six games, due to the circumstances surrounding the comment, as they believe the incident warrants a different punishment when considering context. If their appeal is successful, the midfielder will be available one match earlier, for the team’s home fixture against Liverpool on December 22nd.

With one of their key starting midfielders missing for the foreseeable future, as well as a growing list of injured absentees (including vice-captain Cristian Romero) how will Spurs cope during their intense December campaign?