Bentancur: The longest bans in football after hit with seven-match suspension

Rodrigo Bentancur has been banned for seven matches from playing for Tottenham after being found guilty by the Football Association of using an alleged racist comment about teammate Son Heung-min in a TV interview.

The Uruguay international suggested all South Koreans 'look the same' after suggesting a player 'could be Sonny's cousin' and was charged by the FA in September for alleged misconduct.

Bentancur has also been fined £100,000, but the blow from his sanction will be worth more to Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou, who has relied heavily on the player during this Premier League campaign.

With his seven-match domestic ban, Bentancur will serve one of the toughest punishments in football for breaking the rules, although others have spent longer on the sidelines for their indiscretions.

From drugs to gambling and violent behavior, there are a multitude of reasons why some players have missed months of the beautiful game.

Here are some of the players who have served the longest bans in the Premier League era.

Aleksandar Mitrovic (Fulham) / Ben Thatcher (Man City) – 8 matches

The 2022-2023 season saw one of the longest bans imposed on a player, coupled with Ivan Toney's massive sanction for gambling violations.

Fulham's Aleksandar Mitrovic was banned for eight matches after shoving referee Chris Kavanagh during their FA Cup defeat to Manchester United in March.

It was even thought the FA wanted a longer ban over the ugly incident, although that has now passed and he has returned to the Fulham team.

The Serbian striker is not the only man to receive an eight-match ban. Manchester City's Ben Thatcher was given the same punishment for knocking Portsmouth player Pedro Mendes unconscious in a match in September 2006.

Thatcher was only shown a yellow card for the incident at the time, but the FA issued the ban after opting to take further action after the match. Man City also fined him six weeks' wages for the incident.

Luis Suarez (Liverpool) / David Prutton (Southampton) – 10 games

Luis Suarez was also handed an eight-match ban after an FA hearing ruled controversial Uruguayan Manchester United's Patrice Evra had used racist abuse.

It wasn't even his longest sentence, a 10-match disciplinary sentence imposed after he accepted an assault charge for biting Chelsea player Branislav Ivanovic on the arm in an incident that the on-pitch referees missed at the time .

A three-man independent panel criticized Suarez for failing to appreciate 'the seriousness' of the incident – the second of three corrosive incidents that have marred Suarez's career.

Southampton's David Prutton was also handed a 10-match ban for pushing the referee, following a late challenge on Arsenal's Robert Pires, which saw him sent off for a second bookable offence.

Prutton, who now works as a commentator for Sky Sports, later admitted he had made a mistake and was fined £6,000 by the FA for his offence.

Paolo Di Canio (Sheffield Wednesday) – 11 games

The most famous incident of a player clashing with a referee in the Premier League occurred when the fiery Paolo Di Canio shoved Paul Alcock after a red card incident against Arsenal.

It turned out to be the Italian's last game for Sheffield Wednesday before joining West Ham, and the angry reaction to Alcock earned Di Canio a £10,000 fine, as well as 11 games on the sidelines.

Adrian Mutu (Chelsea) – 7 months

As the violations become more egregious, the penalties shift from a certain number of games to a matter of timeout from the game.

Chelsea's striker Adrian Mutu was sacked in October 2004 after testing positive for cocaine, and given a seven-month ban for taking recreational drugs – which transferred to Juventus when he switched clubs.

The FA fined him £20,000 for the failed drugs test – and the Romanian was subsequently embroiled in a long legal battle over claims he owed Chelsea £15.2million.

In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights dismissed Mutu's appeal against a Court of Arbitration's decision three years earlier, insisting he must pay damages solely to Chelsea.

Ivan Toney (Brentford) and Rio Ferdinand (Man United) – 8 months

Ivan Toney's eight-month ban for breaching 232 betting rules was a huge blow for the Brentford striker after a stellar season for the Bees.

An independent disciplinary committee handed the England striker an eight-month ban and a £50,000 fine following a hearing in May 2023

Toney was banned from playing again before January 2024 and returned to the field to play only 17 games for the remainder of the season.

But Toney is not the only English player to be away from football for eight months. Rio Ferdinand suffered a similar fate in December 2003 after missing a drugs test scheduled for the end of his training session at Carrington.

An appeal failed and the Man United defender was forced to sit out the remainder of the domestic season, as well as England's 2004 European Championship season, in which they were eliminated in the quarter-finals by eventual runners-up Portugal.

Eric Cantona (Man United) and Mark Bosnich (Chelsea) – 9 months

Eric Cantona kung-fu kicked a Crystal Palace fan after being sent off at Selhurst Park in 1995, in what has become one of the most memorable incidents in football history.

The Frenchman admitted a charge of assault, for which he was sentenced to community service, and was fined £30,000 and banned, which was eventually extended to nine months.

Cantona's absence was a huge blow to Sir Alex Ferguson's side as Blackburn Rovers won the title that year ahead of Man United.

Chelsea's Australian goalkeeper Mark Bosnich was also given a nine-month ban in April 2003 after failing a drugs test after taking cocaine.

Bosnich attempted to appeal the ban but failed, and was consequently sacked by the Blues just a year after joining from Manchester United.

After overcoming his cocaine addiction, Bosnich returned to football in 2008 when he played for the Central Coast Mariners in Gosford, Australia.

Abel Xavier (Middlesbrough) – 12 months

Portuguese defender Abel Xavier was handed an 18-month ban by UEFA in November 2006 after testing positive for an anabolic steroid following a UEFA Cup match for Middlesbrough.

The sentence was reduced by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the summer of 2006 after he claimed the drug came from anti-virus drugs he had imported from the US.

Middlesbrough stayed with Xavier through the incident, and he resumed playing for the north-eastern club the following season.

Joey Barton (Burnley) – 13 months

Abel Xavier's sentence reduction means the longest penalty for a player in the Premier League era was handed to Joey Barton.

Barton was banned for 12 matches after elbowing Carlos Tevez in the head during QPR's last day decider against Manchester City in 2012, and while being sent off the volatile character kicked Sergio Aguero in the back leg and tried to headbutt Vincent . Kompany and had to be restrained from facing Mario Balotelli as he left the field.

Barton was suspended for twelve matches as a result of his actions at the Etihad that day, and was fined £75,000 by the FA, as well as six weeks' wages from QPR.

In April 2017, Barton, who now played for Burnley, was banned for 18 months for placing bets on 1,260 matches between March 2006 and May 2013.

After being released by the Clarets, the midfielder's ban was reduced by five months on appeal, although the 13-month ban remains the longest sentence any player has served.

And in the pre-Premier League era, spare a thought for Manchester United's Enoch West.

The striker was part of a match-fixing fraud between the Red Devils and Liverpool in 1915. West was banned for life by the FA, along with several Liverpool players.

But while the Reds players' sentences were overturned after the First World War, West's lifelong ban from football remained.

It was eventually disbanded in 1945, but at the age of 59 he played no further role in football. But the thirty-year ban will probably forever be the longest ban in English top-flight history.