Luis Suarez – Background and Opinion

Article by Robert Wake

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None will question Luis Suarez’s undoubted ability on the pitch; he is arguably among the top 5 players in the world today. Equally, he is pretty much in a league of his own when it comes to notoriety on the field.

In November 2010, during Ajax’s Eredivisie game against PSV Eindhoven, Suarez bit PSV’s Otman Bakkal on the shoulder (sound familiar?). He was immediately banned for 2 matches by his club and fined an undisclosed amount. The Dutch football authorities (KNVB) extended the ban to seven matches. While still serving that suspension, Suarez agreed a move to Liverpool in January 2011, for a reported fee of £22.8 million.

In October 2011, during his first full season at Anfield, in a game against Manachester United, Suarez was accused of racially abusing United’s Patrice Evra. Following a lengthy investigation by The Football Association, Suarez was found guilty of the offence, and was fined £40,000 and banned for eight matches. Before Liverpool’s next meeting with Manchester United, Suarez avoided shaking Evra’s hand, for which both he and manager, Kenny Dalglish were later forced to apologise. During the same season, Suarez was banned for one match for making an obscene gesture towards Fulham fans.

In 2012-13 Suarez came second to Gareth Bale for the PFA Player of The Year award, and also scored 23 goals. However, these achievements were again overshadowed following another biting incident on Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic during a 2-2 draw at Anfield on 21 April 2013. Suarez was charged with violent conduct by the FA, and also fined an undisclosed amount by Liverpool. A three-man independent panel appointed by the FA sanctioned a 10-match ban for Suarez, who did not appeal the ban.

So, that is the background ahead of Suarez’s latest biting incident against Giorgio Chiellini while playing for Uruguay against Italy last week. FIFA’s sanction for this latest offence is a 9-match International suspension, and a four month ban from all football related activities. The four month ban prevents Suarez from playing before 27 October 2014.

So what happens now? Does Liverpool stand by their player? Can Suarez be re-habilitated; bearing in mind he has bitten opponents 3 times in under 4 years? Can any club, even those with the resources of Barcelona and Real Madrid take a gamble on the player, who, should he offend again, may well be banned for a season or even thrown out of the game for good?

In any normal workplace, Suarez would be sacked for gross-misconduct. Can you imagine going to work tomorrow morning, biting someone without provocation, and expect to keep your job? Of course not. You would be sacked on the spot, and likely charged with assault. Liverpool should probably do the same with Suarez, but of course they won’t. Football is a business, and Suarez is Liverpool’s prize asset, worth somewhere north of £50 million even after his latest transgression. There are plenty who believe that Suarez’s latest assault was not an accident as Suarez claims, but a pre-meditated action designed to engineer a big money move to Spain. When you take into account his not so thinly veiled attacks on the English media, and his protracted attempts to leave Liverpool last summer, it is a theory that may have more than a thread of truth to it. Certainly, there were suggestions in Amsterdam that his assault on Otman Bakkal was used to manufacture his move to Liverpool, which duly came to pass 2 months later.

What I, and many others find so distasteful, is the distinct lack of remorse shown by the player. In his defence to FIFA, Suarez claims that “I lost my balance, making my body unstable and falling on top of my opponent.” “At that moment I hit my face against the player leaving a small bruise on my cheek and a strong pain in my teeth.” “In no way it happened how you have described, as a bite or intent to bite.” The statement is so ridiculous as to be laughable, and frankly insulting to FIFA and the whole of football.

Football is littered with flawed genii, From George Best, through Diego Maradona, Paul Gascoigne and Eric Cantona. Equally, there have always been hard men, dirty players and bad tackles. However I cannot recall a player biting a fellow professional, let alone doing so three times in four years.

Let’s have no more talk of Suarez requiring counselling. It is my opinion that these incidents are not the result of some kind of psychological issue. They are cynical, calculated assaults by a selfish, reprehensible human being, coveting his next move.

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some have coveted, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (Timothy 6.10).

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