Spurs' Bentancur set for lenghty ban for making racist remark about Son

Bad news for Rodrigo Bentancur. Tottenham's Uruguayan player has received a 7-match suspension for some words he had months ago in which, apparently innocently, he referred derogatorily to South Koreans by assuring that "they all look the same".

The midfielder immediately apologised on social media to his teammate Heung-min Son and even spoke to him face-to-face as soon as possible to apologise. Although the winger did not give too much color to the matter and accepted the apology, the FA investigated what happened and decided to exemplify with a harsh sanction for Bentancur.

In this sense, the disparity of criteria evidenced by the English FA in these matters is surprising. It should be recalled that the body sanctioned Edinson Cavani for calling a friend “negrito” on Instagram and also Bernardo Silva for comparing his teammate Benjamin Mendy to a brand mascot of Spanish confectionery brand Conguitos. However, Alejandro Garnacho dodged the penalty despite using a gorilla emoticon next to a photo of teammate Andre Onana on social media during the 2023-24 season.

The 7-match ban for Rodrigo Bentancur marks a turning point in this type of punishment, as they have not been so harsh until now. Thus, Bentancur will not be able to play for Tottenham again until mid-December.

The event that led to the punishment occurred last June, when the midfielder said that all Koreans “look more or less the same” in an interview with Uruguayan television. In a relaxed tone, the interviewer asked Bentancur for a Son jersey, who replied with the controversial answer.

“Could you get me a shirt of the Korean?”, the journalist asked Bentancur. “Of ‘Sonny’?”, replied the Uruguay international, to which the interviewer clarified: “Or that of any other champion”. Then came Bentancur's controversial answer: “Yes, or any of ‘Sonny's’ cousins, they are all more or less the same”.

"Sonny, bro! Sorry for what happened, it was just a really bad joke. You know I adore you and I would never try to disrespect you or hurt you, I love you brother!"  For his part, Son Heung-min tried to defuse the issue on his own social media and also in a Tottenham statement: "I have spoken to 'Lolo'. He made a mistake, he is aware of it and has apologised. He didn't mean anything offensive intentionally. We are brothers and nothing has changed for us".