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Suarez’ ban was deserved, but once again FIFA get it wrong

Date: 2nd July 2014 at 9:00 am
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suarez banMexican goalkeeper Memo Ochoa may have been labelled the new Jesus by an over-zealous fan on Wikipedia but the real martyr this World Cup is without a shadow of a doubt Uruguay’s Luis Suarez.

From the wronged man act to waving from his balcony to all his misguided and adoring public to the whole of his country – including the President – who called FIFA ‘old sons of b*****s,’ getting behind the player and berating both England and FIFA, Suarez has become a martyr.

He genuinely believes he has been wronged by the footballing authorities and make no mistake, despite his apology over twitter to Giorgio Chiellini, he still firmly believes he is in the right.

The ludicrous excuse offered to FIFA initially showed that. Suarez was prepared to use anything and everything he could to get off and reduce his suspension.

Now after his ‘apology,’ which let’s be honest was forced out of him by suitors Barcelona, even the bitten Chiellini himself has called for the ban to be reduced.

Whilst the four month suspension from playing is quite right, if not a tad lenient, the rest of the ban is typical FIFA. Utterly ridiculous. Why should Suarez be prevented from sitting in a stadium to watch his side? He is hardly likely to bite a crowd member! The prevention from training is also  slightly harsh but understandable. What is not however is the fact that Suarez is now banned from partaking in any charitable events relating to football.

That is simply outrageous. Not only does it not really punish Suarez, but it takes away from the disadvantaged the forward could be helping. Have FIFA not heard of community service?

Yes, they may be concerned about Suarez cashing in and trying to use charity work to fix his image, fair enough, but if that is the case ban cameras and reporting on the work. Ban sponsors from attending and the player making any money. Do not ban him from doing anything charitable all together!

Neither can Suarez do any promotional work for Liverpool or his sponsors. Well a fair few are ‘considering his future’ with their brand and we all know what that means so they probably wouldn’t want him anyway.

His current club meanwhile should omit him from their promotional shots for the up and coming season for two reasons. One – he is not a good role model. Two – he won’t even be there anyway. Why bother moving your team photo outside the stadium when you would have to Photoshop a player out of it anyway?

He has made it very clear he is still angling for a move to La Liga and his apology has come only because of that. The word is Barcelona insisted on it. Well Suarez should know where his bread is buttered after that. Liverpool make him t-shirts. Barcelona make him apologise.

Suarez still looks like getting his dream move to the Catalan side, who many thought would be deterred by the forward’s image.

Well this is a club who claimed they would never get a shirt sponsor and in the space of a few seasons have amassed a fair few (not to mention now unveiling one on their kit sleeves.)They have also defended Sergio Busquets for doing some pretty Suarez like things in the past, so a little bite shouldn’t really bother them.

Unlike last summer, this time around Liverpool and Brendan Rodgers seem happy to allow him to leave for the right price. Who can blame them. They are a proud club, steeped in history and are returning to the greatest stage of domestic football, the Champions League. Their focus and press should be on that, not the lunatic who may score a few decent goals but bites the opposition and brings the club so far into disrepute it is hard to find a way back. Liverpool are only just getting over the t-shirt debacle and cannot afford another slip up.

Suarez has promised such an incident will never happen again. Quite why it has taken three bites to even get such an apology not to mention the fact that his word is worth about as much as John Terry’s when claiming he will stay faithful also speaks volumes.

It will happen again and when it does, Suarez will probably blame everyone but himself yet again.

What do you think of the ban? Should it have been longer? Was it unfair on Suarez? Let us know your thoughts below or tweet us @LaFootyettes.

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