Rodrigo Bentancur: FA verdict confirms Tottenham midfielder's rejected defence over Heung-min Son slur | OneFootball

Spurs star has been handed a seven-match suspension and fined £100,000 over controversial comment

Rodrigo Bentancur claimed his racial slur about Heung-min Son was “sarcastic and a gentle rebuke" to a journalist who described his Tottenham team-mate as "the Korean".

He will miss Tottenham's Premier League games against Manchester City, Fulham, Bournemouth, Chelsea, Southampton and Liverpool, and the visit of Manchester United in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals, and must complete a face-to-face education programme by March 11.

In September, Bentancur was charged with an aggravated breach of the FA's misconduct rules for 'abusive and/or insulting' words relating 'to nationality and/or race and/or ethnic origin', which he denied. His case was heard by an independent three-person panel on November 5.

In a written submission in his defence on behalf of the player, Tottenham claimed: "Rodrigo's reply was sarcastic and a gentle rebuke for the journalist calling Sonny ‘The Korean’. Rodrigo does not believe that all Koreans ‘look more or less the same’.

"The context of the exchange clearly shows Rodrigo is being sarcastic. It was Mr Cotelo who described Sonny as ‘The Korean’. In the context of the conversation, it was obvious that Mr Cotelo was referring to Sonny as ‘The Korean’, and Rodrigo was challenging the journalist in his description of his Club team-mate.”

The club also described his comment as a “jocular generalisation... which did not cross the line into misconduct".

Bentancur apologised to Son via social media the day after the video was published, before posting "a longer apology" online the following week.

Son also posted about the incident on his socials, revealing Bentancur "has apologised" and insisting their relationship was unchanged.

In a further strand of his defence, the club claimed Bentancur's apologies were "not for what he said, but for the inadequate reporting on the interview which excluded Mr Cotelo’s reference to “the Korean”."

Spurs also argued that the 27-year-old had "a reasonable expectation of privacy and – moreover – a reasonable expectation that the journalist would show more common sense in what he posted", because the interview took place in his home, claiming he reacted with "horror" when Costelo included the exchange in the final edit.

The commission rejected Bentancur's defence, however, and found that his comment was "objectively... insulting and/or abusive and highly offensive", even if it was meant as a rebuke to Costelo.

The panel was unimpressed with Bentancur's claim about the true meaning of his apologies, saying his explanation "flies in the face of the evidence" and also dismissed his entitlement to privacy.

"If the Player had wanted specifically to exclude something he had said in the interview from being published, he could have said so to Mr Cotelo: there is no evidence that he sought to do so," the commission's final report read.

The FA recommends a six- to 12-match sanction for players found guilty of an aggravated breach of misconduct rules, but the commission considered a series of mitigating factors in Bentancur's case.

They took into account that he had no history of previous offences and had initially showed remorse for the comment with his apologies.

They also accepted that his comments were not premeditated and that he had not reposted the video himself. Bentancur has the right to appeal the decision.