Tottenham Hotspur have announced they will appeal to the FA regarding Rodrigo Bentancur’s seven-game ban on counts of racist remarks on South Korean teammate and captain Heung Min Son by the Football Association. Following the announcement on Wednesday, Spurs head coach Ange Postecoglu pleaded for his midfielder claiming the decision by the FA is ‘harsh’.
“I’m not interested in looks and whatever. I’ve said all along, that he’s made a mistake, we’ve accepted that he has made a mistake. We’ll accept whatever penalty comes our way. We believe the first one (ban) was harsh and we’ve appealed that, which I think is our right. That’s the whole process,” he said.
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Alongside the ban by the FA, Bentancur 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 potentially 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.
“Even if you look at the punishment, it’s at the lower end of the scale. So even the people who have all the information, have adjudicated it that way. I get that people want to burn people at the stake these days, but as I keep saying, part of this process, if you want a real sort of education, is to understand. When somebody makes a mistake and they pay a penalty, part of that is education and hopefully treating him in a way that people see is the way forward,” Ange added.
While on Uruguayan TV in June, Bentancur had talked about his Spurs club captain Son and made a distasteful joke about how ‘all South Koreans look the same’. Following the incident, Bentancur had taken to social media and posted a public apology to his captain.
“Whether it is Bentancur or anyone else, I’m old enough in life, I’ve made bigger mistakes than that mate, but I was allowed to learn from it. Hopefully, I’m a better human being because of that,” he said.
