Tottenham will appeal the length of the ban imposed on midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur for his comments about teammate Son Heung-min, according to the PA news agency.
The Football Association announced on Monday that the 27-year-old Uruguay international would serve a seven-match domestic ban, covering six Premier League matches and a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Manchester United.
Bentancur was charged with misconduct in September following a television interview he gave in his home country in June, with the reference to Son’s race making it an aggravated offense.
The standard minimum ban when such an offense is established is six matches, so Spurs could look to get a one-match reduction in the suspension.
Bentancur was asked in an interview to show a Spurs player’s jersey and replied: “Sonny’s?” It could also be Sonny’s cousin, since they all look the same.
Bentancur apologized on Instagram to Son for his remarks, and Son accepted the apology in a statement on the same platform.
“I spoke with Lolo (Bentancur). He made a mistake, he knows it and apologized,” the South Korean captain said.
“Lolo would never have intended to intentionally say anything offensive. We are brothers and nothing has changed at all.
“We are past this, we are united and we will be together again in pre-season to fight for our club as one.”
Bentancur was also fined £100,000.
The panel gave the following explanation for the seven-match ban: “We consider that in terms of culpability and consequences, this offense falls towards the lower end of the indicative range, but not towards the highest point. lower.
“We can easily envisage cases less serious than this, but nevertheless subject to the minimum suspension of six matches.”
The panel said it should have been “reasonably foreseeable” to Bentancur that the remarks would be widely disseminated via social media, but took into account as mitigation his sincere apology and previous clean disciplinary record.