By MATT BARLOW, FOOTBALL WRITER
Published: 11:06 EST, 9 January 2026 | Updated: 11:06 EST, 9 January 2026
Cristian Romero has been hit with an additional one-match ban for failing to leave the pitch after his red card against Liverpool and is set to miss the FA Cup tie against Aston Villa.
Romero was sent off for two yellow cards and served an automatic one-match ban in the next fixture, against Crystal Palace.
But the FA accused him with failing to leave the pitch promptly and the Spurs captain later admitted the charge.
An independent commission has fined him £50,000 and added another one-match ban, which will start in the FA Cup at home against Villa on Saturday.
This after Romero took to social media on Wednesday after a 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth with cryptic comments seeming to accuse the Spurs board of lies.
Romero's comments, later edited to remove reference to lies, were condoned by several teammates, which hinted at disillusion in the dressing room about ambition in the transfer market.
Cristian Romero has been hit with an additional one-match ban for failing to leave the pitch after his red card against Liverpool and is set to miss the FA Cup tie against Aston Villa
The FA accused him with failing to leave the pitch promptly and he later admitted the charge
Boss Thomas Frank defended his captain in a press conference on Thursday.
'After Cuti became the captain, he's done a lot of good things right,' said Frank. 'I said it when I named him the captain that even though he's an experienced player, he's still a young leader.
'And a lot of the things he's done well on and off the pitch, I'm happy with.
'I'm actually very happy with his performance last night. He was a true captain in many ways. Speaking up at half-time when we were 2-1 down, keep believing, keep doing the right things.
'But also when you're a young leader sometimes you make a mistake, of course it's good to keep it internally.'
Frank said he would not discipline Romero for his social media comments and would not consider stripping him of the captaincy.