Tottenham midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur has been charged by the Football Association (FA) for saying all South Koreans “look the same” during a television appearance.
In a clip posted on social media of a June interview in Spanish on Uruguayan TV show “Por la Camiseta,” presenter Rafa Cotelo asked Bentancur for a Spurs player's shirt, to which he replied: “Sonny's?” [Son Heung-Min]He added: “He could also be Sonny's cousin, since they all look alike.”
English football's governing body said in a statement that the 27-year-old had been “charged with an alleged breach of FA Rule E3 for misconduct in relation to a media interview.”
“It is alleged that the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder acted inappropriately and/or used abusive and/or insulting words and/or brought disrepute.
“It is further alleged that this constituted an 'aggravated breach' as defined in FA Rule E3.2 as it included a reference, whether express or implied, to a nationality and/or race and/or ethnic origin.”
The FA's laws state that “match-based sanctions of between six and 12 games will be recommended to the governing committees for almost all acts of discrimination committed by individual participants”.
The Uruguay international apologised on 20 June in an Instagram post for the comment, which he described as a “very bad joke”. Five days later, Tottenham captain Son said he had accepted his teammate's apology.
“He was wrong, he knows it and he has apologized. Lolo” [Bentancur] “I never meant to say anything offensive intentionally. We are brothers and nothing has changed at all,” Son said in a social media post.
“We have overcome this, we are united and we will be together again in pre-season to fight for our club as one.”
Bentancur has until September 19 to respond to the FA's accusation.
Tottenham take on Arsenal in the north London derby on Sunday, with Ange Postecoglou's side looking to dent their arch-rivals' title ambitions and claim a convincing Premier League win.
