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Suarez: The Ugly Side of the Beautiful Game

It’s 2014 and football has finally lost it’s way.

Ok, not necessarily the game itself because we’ve seen some lovely stuff during the 2014 World Cup, but everything else that surrounds it. From the supporters, managers and players, through to the pundits, journalists and governing bodies, the plot has become well and truly lost. Or at least that seems to be the only explanation I can come up with to account for the whole Luis Suarez debacle.

What other reason could there be for a professional football player to bite an opponent in the middle of a game and then receive such a lenient ‘punishment’ for it? And what else would explain the suggestions that this penalty is in any way harsh, or that Suarez is somehow ‘suffering’ an illness that means he’ll score goals for fun when things go his way and take chunks out of the opposition for kicks when it doesn’t?

Let’s not forget this is an individual in the very privileged position of being paid an obscene amount of money to represent club and country in front of millions watching the world over. We should also remember that whilst in such a privileged position, Luis Suarez has repeatedly bitten opponents mid-game and I say ‘repeatedly’ because once might be a rush of blood to the head (and one you’d expect an appropriate level of embarrassment and remorse for), twice is inexplicable and three times is just a bloody habit.

Even his attitude towards the incident immediately after the game against Chile smacks of complete nonchalance, with Suarez telling Uruguayan television: “These are just things that happen out on the pitch. It was just the two of us inside the area and he bumped into me with his shoulder. There are things that happen on the pitch and you should not make such a big deal out of them.” His ‘defence’ following the ban was little better either, with no apologies for the teeth marks inflicted on the shoulder of Giorgio Chiellini but instead, the laughable claim he had lost his balance and fallen on his victim’s shoulder – with a whinge about a sore mouth thrown in just to add insult to Chiellini’s injury.

For managers to then defend a player despite behaviour like this – and worse still, supporters who don’t even have the financial implications to consider – just sums up how fractured the world’s thinking has become when it comes to ‘the beautiful game’.

How quickly some want to sweep Suarez’ latest misdemeanour under the carpet, yet dust off wrongdoings from a decade, or even two ago, in some misguided attempt to justify what was nothing less than GBH on the pitch.

Not that I thought Cantona was anything more than a thug at the time but for anyone wishing to make comparisons, the former United player received a nine month ban from the game, in addition to being sentenced to two weeks in prison, reduced to 120 hours community service. Granted, this was for responding to provocation by assaulting someone in the crowd, but is assaulting a fellow professional on the pitch without provocation any less of an offence? Well apparently it is, which is why I’m of the opinion football is in dire need of a Tom Tom to get back on track.

Ironically, whilst England were playing Uruguay, an England supporter was bitten in the crowd. The press, quite rightly, were outraged by this. Six British police officers travelled to Brazil to investigate, interviewing several witnesses. The Chief Supt leading the British operation in Brazil said “During the course of our pursuit of the assailant, we located and interviewed several witnesses. They were very helpful in giving their version of events, but, unfortunately they were unable to give us a name for the alleged attacker.”

Officers observed supporters at England’s final match against Costa Rica in an effort to find, and bring the assailant to justice. Sadly this was unsuccessful but a Foreign Office spokesperson was at least able to reassure us “We are aware of an incident in Sao Paulo on the June 19 involving a British national, and we provided consular assistance.”

FIFA had the option to give Suarez a two year ban – I don’t believe either the police or the Foreign Office have made comments.

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