South Korea’s Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors assistant coach Mauricio Tarikko has been suspended for five matches by the K-League’s disciplinary committee for making a racist gesture during a November 8 match.
The former Tottenham player was sent off after arguing with the referee over a penalty call against Daejeon Hanna Citizen.
The 52-year-old then shouted “racista” – the Spanish word for racist – before making a sideways eye movement, the K-League confirmed.
Tariko claimed that his gesture was to show that the referee did not see the handball directly.
However, the K League rejected this, stating that the Disciplinary Committee stated that “the evaluation of a particular act must be based on the universal meaning of that act as expressed, not the stated intent of the perpetrator”.
It concluded that his actions “were tantamount to the famous derogatory gesture of the ‘squinting eye’ against Asians and sufficiently inflicted feelings of racial insult on the recipient.”
Taricco was also fined 20 million won, roughly £12,000.
A full-back during his playing career, Tariko started out with Argentinos Juniors in his native Argentina before making his first move to England in 1994 to join Ipswich Town.
He then joined Tottenham in 1998 and spent six years at the north London club.
The Argentinian had a brief stint at West Ham before ending his playing career at Brighton, where he also had a role as assistant manager.
Tariko has since held several assistant coaching posts at European clubs including Sunderland, AEK Athens and Real Betis, where he worked alongside former Tottenham team-mate and close friend Gus Poyt.
Tariko joined Jeonbuk last year after coaching Chinese team Shanghai Shenhua, Bordeaux and the Greek national team.
He is now set for the sidelines after his suspension was confirmed on Wednesday.
