'Tottenham seem like a lot of clubs - tough on racism until it involves their own'

Tottenham's entreaty against the magnitude of midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur's seven-game suspension for his slur against South Korean radical sends retired the incorrect message

With a radical slur, Rodrigo Bentancur insulted a federation of 52 cardinal people, including his team-mate and captain.

But Spurs are upset due to the fact that the Uruguayan midfielder is going to miss Liverpool astatine home. That is however it looks. You would person thought Tottenham Hotspur mightiness beryllium much delicate than astir erstwhile it comes to casual, but harmful, discrimination, but, instead, they judge Bentancur has been hard done by.

When asked successful a TV interrogation successful his homeland to supply a garment belonging to a Spurs player, Bentancur replied: “Sonny’s? It could beryllium Sonny’s relative excessively arsenic they each look the same.” It could not person been much offensive. And, successful a antithetic way, Spurs’ determination to entreaty against the Football Association’s authorisation of Bentancur could not beryllium much offensive.

The adjacent clip Spurs instrumentality portion successful a Premier League run against racism and discrimination, conscionable retrieve the time they objected to 1 of their players being punished with a seven-match prohibition for saying that each South Koreans look the same. As ever successful these types of cases, determination volition beryllium a batch of whataboutery.

And what the punishment of Bentancur has astir surely done is item the implicit disgrace of Enzo Fernandez not yet being held to relationship for the racist opus helium and his Argentine team-mates sang astir French players. Apparently, it is to bash with jurisdiction. Well, immoderate the jurisdiction issues, the assorted shot authorities - FIFA and CONMEBOL, successful peculiar - should beryllium ashamed.

Just arsenic Chelsea should beryllium ashamed for the mode they, effectively, swept the full contented nether the carpet. A period aft his chant, they adjacent made Fernandez captain, for goodness sake. A batch of clubs look to beryllium pugnacious connected racism and favoritism - but not erstwhile it involves 1 of their own.

It seems Spurs and the player’s ineligible representatives believed Bentancur’s contrition and contiguous apology to Son Heung-min should person been mitigating factors. But what is little wide known - chiefly due to the fact that fewer tin beryllium bothered speechmaking the autarkic commission’s written reasons for the punishment - is that Bentancur really denied the misconduct complaint and denied it was an aggravated breach.

He claimed his remark was - aft the antheral interviewing him referred to Son arsenic ‘the Korean’ - a “sarcastic and gentle rebuke … intended to beryllium a light-hearted and jocular mode of chiding the writer for his usage of a generalisation that was wholly inappropriate.”

Rightly, the committee emphatically dismissed that defence. Bentancur mightiness person apologised to Son but helium tried to wriggle disconnected the charge. And having been fixed a seven-game ban, which is lone 1 much than the minimum tariff for specified an offence, Spurs are present appealing against the sanction, believing it to beryllium “severe”.

If the minimum helium could person got was six, Tottenham are, presumably, conscionable trying to get him disposable for what volition beryllium fig 7 - that location lucifer against Liverpool connected December 22. But what is ‘severe’ present is Tottenham’s deficiency of judgement, Tottenham’s deficiency of sensitivity.

One of the club’s players has made a radical slur. Take the punishment, amended him and effort to beryllium better. And don’t interest astir Liverpool astatine home.

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