Tottenham star Rodrigo Bentancur handed four-game Uruguay ban after Colombia clashes

Tottenham midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur has been handed a four-game ban from international football.

The Spurs star is one of five Uruguay players to be sanctioned by South American football’s governing body CONMEBOL on Wednesday following the ugly scenes that marred July’s heated Copa America semi-final tie against Colombia.

Bentancur has also been handed a $16,000 (£12,000) fine for his part in clashes between Uruguay players and Colombia fans that followed Colombia’s feisty 1-0 win at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez has been banned for five matches and fined $20,000, with Barcelona’s Ronald Araujo, Atletico Madrid defender Jose Maria Gimenez and Napoli left-back Mathias Olivera all handed respective three-game suspensions and fines of $12,000.

The Uruguayan Football Association were also fined $20,000 following the fracas, meanwhile.

The bans for Nunez, Bentancur, Araujo, Gimenez and Olivera all apply to international football only, with all five players remaining available for club duty.

Barca centre-back Araujo is currently sidelined through injury after undergoing hamstring surgery earlier this summer, while Bentancur missed Tottenham’s 4-0 Premier League thumping of Everton last weekend after suffering a head injury during the opening game of the season away at newly-promoted Leicester.

Uruguay - currently managed by former Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa - return to action with a friendly against Guatemala in Florida next week before September World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay and Venezuela are followed by meetings with Peru and Ecuador respectively in October.

They face Colombia again on home soil in November before travelling to take on Brazil in their final match of 2024.

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