Morecambe midfielder handed six-game ban for Tranmere Rovers red card

The 29-year-old’s punishment was announced on Thursday and will also see him complete face-to-face education.

Two of those six games have already been served with the remainder of the ban meaning Songo’o sits out the next four matches against Harrogate Town, Cheltenham Town, Cambridge United and Southend United.

He will be available again for the final seven games of the campaign, starting with the trip to Port Vale on April 10.

Outlining the suspension, imposed by an independent Regulatory Commission, the FA website said: “The midfielder used abusive and/or insulting language towards an opponent during the 45th minute of the match, which is contrary to FA Rule E3.1, and this also constituted an “aggravated breach”, as defined in FA Rule E3.2, because the language included a reference to sexual orientation.”

A Morecambe statement said: “Morecambe Football Club fully accepts the findings of the FA hearing into Yann Songo’s case today, which resulted in Yann receiving a six-game ban of which he has already served two games.

“The club would like to once again stress that it abhors abuse of any sort be it on the grounds of race, colour, religion, ethnicity, gender identity, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation.

“We are a community-based family club that has high expectations of its players and staff and Yann’s behaviour fell short of those expectations in this instance.

“We will reinforce our commitment to making Morecambe Football Club a wholly inclusive environment and we will remind all football and non-football staff of their responsibility to promote and support such an environment through comprehensive diversity, equality and inclusion training.”

Songo’o added: “I’d like to offer a sincere apology for any offence I’ve caused.

“I’m really disappointed in myself for using that term, because it does not reflect the type of person I am but it was under provocation.

“I’m totally against any form of discrimination and I know what I said was totally unacceptable, I can only apologise and ask for forgiveness to anyone I offended.”

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