The Football Association have suspended Jon Obi Mikel for three matches and fined him £60,000 after confronting referee Mark Clattenburg following Chelsea's defeat to Manchester United in October.
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The midfielder had entered the match official's dressing room after the Stamford Bridge encounter after being told by his team-mates the referee had directed racially aggravated abuse towards the Blues man.
The FA said they acknowledge the circumstances that led to the confrontation, but revealed the Nigerian's punishment would have been much more severe had the situation been different.
A statement on the FA website read: "The Regulatory Commission's independent chairman Christopher Quinlan QC emphasised that the Independent Regulatory Commission accepted, as did The FA, that at the time he threatened the referee the player genuinely believed that the referee had racially abused him.
"But for that factor the suspension would have been significantly longer."
The ban will now rule Mikel out of the Premier League games against Sunderland and Southampton, as well as the Capital One cup quarter-final against Leeds.
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