Tottenham player suspended for 7 games after racist joke about teammate

Rodrigo Bentancur was sanctioned following an interview given to the Uruguayan show “Por la camiseta” in June. He made fun of his South Korean teammate Heung-min Son.

The sanction is exemplary. The English Football Association announced a suspension for seven matches on Monday, November 18. [lien en Anglais] of Tottenham midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur. The latter, also sentenced to pay a fine of 100,000 pounds sterling (around 120,000 euros), was guilty of a racist joke in a video interview with the Uruguayan media “Por la camiseta” in June.

In the incriminated scene, since removed from the video extract, journalist Rafa Cotelo asks him: “Can you get me the Korean’s jersey?”. “From Sonny (the nickname of his South Korean teammate Heung-min Son) or a cousin of Sonny's? Because they all look the same”Bentancur then replies, 65 selections with the Céleste.

After an outcry on social networks, the person concerned took up his pen on his X account: “Sonny, my brother! I apologize for what happened. It was just a really bad joke.”. Heung-min Son also tried to calm the situation. “He made a mistake. He knows it and apologized. We are like brothers and nothing has changed”he wrote on Instagram.

The regulatory commission responsible for studying the case of the 27-year-old player concluded that points E3.1 and E.3.2 of the federation's regulations [lien en Anglais] were not respected. “We consider that the player's conduct and the words he used, in this context, were clearly abusive and insultingwrites the minutes of the judgment. We are required to apply the sanctions set out in the Annex to Part A of the Disciplinary Regulations, which require an immediate suspension of six to 12 matches, six being the 'minimum standard' of the sanction.”.

Two “aggravating circumstances” were retained: the fact that “the player is an international playing in the Premier League” and that the remarks were made on video, in a sequence that went viral. But, on the other hand, the commission noted the “remorse” of the player and the fact that he had not done “advertising” of the interview. In addition to the suspension and fine, Rodrigo Bentancur will have to follow a mandatory awareness program.