Gareth Southgate welcomes ‘common-sense’ verdict over Jude Bellingham gesture

By Jamie Gardner and Mark Mann-Bryans, PA

Gareth Southgate claimed UEFA’s decision to hand Jude Bellingham a suspended one-match ban for a gesture in the Euro 2024 last-16 win over Slovakia was a “common-sense” call but does not feel he needs to talk to the England midfielder about the incident.

Bellingham has been cleared to play in Saturday’s quarter-final against Switzerland after an investigation into a gesture seemingly made in the direction of the Slovakia bench as he celebrated his overhead kick goal to take the tie to extra time.

The Real Madrid star insisted in a social media post that the gesture was “an inside joke towards some close friends”, but UEFA opened an investigation on Monday to determine whether the gesture “violated the basic rules of decent conduct”.

“I thought it was a common-sense decision,” England manager Southgate said of the punishment, which saw Bellingham handed a 30,000 euros (£25,400) fine as well as the suspended ban, which will be triggered by any further offence within one year.

“Clearly when you score a goal of the quality that he did at the moment he did at the age he is, you are going to have an incredible rush of adrenaline. I think there was no intent in the gesture towards anybody other than the communication he has with his family.

“So from our perspective, we thought it was a sensible outcome. I speak to players all the time. I don’t feel a particular need to spend time with Jude on that. He is aware of the investigation and he is an intelligent guy.”

The Football Association was also fined a total of 11,000 euros (£9,000) for crowd disturbances and the lighting of fireworks by supporters during the Slovakia match.

Merih Demiral, whose brace helped Turkey overcome Austria and book their place in the quarter-finals, has been suspended for two matches over a wolf salute he made towards the crowd at the match in Leipzig on Tuesday.

The salute is recognised as being linked to the far-right movement in Turkey.

UEFA said Demiral had been suspended for “failing to comply with the general principles of conduct, for violating the basic rules of decent conduct, for using sports events for manifestations of a non-sporting nature and for bringing the sport of football into disrepute”.