Archive for the ‘Luis Suarez’ Category

Broken News: Luis Suarez won’t appeal FA ten-match ban for biting

Posted by Richard Whittall under EPL, Liverpool, Luis Suarez on Apr 26, 2013

This is practically old news now but I thought I would use this as an opportunity to just cram all my Suarez opinionating into a single post considering we’re not going to hear about Suarez for a while.

Suarez Won’t Appeal the Ban: Suarez won’t play for Liverpool again until late Septmeber 2013 as he forgoes an appeal to the FA’s punishment.

What I think: Suarez’s lawyers told him not to after he got the full reasoning for the ban from the FA which is set to be released today, so he, for the best, decided not to make his situation worth. Here is his statement in full:

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Value of My Opinion: .045

David Cameron’s remarks: British Prime Minister David Cameron defended his comments on Suarez in which he said biting set a bad example for the kids. Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers said they compromised the impartiality of the FA.

What I think: Yep, I’m sure the FA was scared of an offhand remark made the Prime Minister so they added…three games? This is just stupid, and Rodgers should have just his mouth and taken Tony’s advice:

Value of my opinion: About the same as a box of doughnuts with two missing.

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Rodgers and Wenger both say the FA punished the man and not the incident: Yup. They both said that.

What I think: Well, maybe? The FA will be releasing their rationale for the decision in full. No doubt Suarez’s reputation precedes him, and this may have consciously or unconsciously affected the FA’s ten game ban for BITING. BITING. But there are several presumptions here, including the idea that the FA acts like a court of law. Maybe the FA might avoid this sort of thing if they just published a list of punishments for on-field events. Biting = ten games. Purple Nurples = four games. Cracking open the skull of your opponent and feasting on the goo inside = 6 games. And so on.

Value of my opinion: A DVD copy of Life of Pi.

There are rumours Suarez may leave England following match ban: Rodgers said this.

What I think: I’m sure there is a league where biters are awarded with automatic goals and racism is totally acceptable. I’m trying really hard here not to type a certain word that begins with an “I” and ends with a “Y.”

The value of my opinion: A gimmicky blog post.

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Lyttleton: Suarez’s native Uruguay gives unqualified support to the Liverpool striker following bite ban

Posted by Ben Lyttleton under EPL, Liverpool, Luis Suarez on Apr 25, 2013

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If the ten-game ban that Luis Suarez received for biting Branislav Ivanovic last Sunday was badly received in Liverpool, imagine how it went down in Uruguay.

Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher had written in support of Suarez in the Daily Mail that he’d rather get bitten than have his leg broken (though his argument fell down when he accepted that rules are different when you are talking about Liverpool’s best player, citing Charles Itandje, Liverpool’s third-choice goalkeeper, who left soon after he was caught laughing and joking during a Hillsborough Memorial service).

On Thursday morning, Pepe Reina went one step further than Carragher and as good as accused the FA of xenophobia, saying: “They treat Suarez differently, because he’s Uruguayan. He knows what he did is wrong, but ten games is absurd, excessive and unfair.”

The written explanation of Suarez’s ban will be received on Thursday—the FA really do themselves no favours by allowing the story to gather momentum before explaining the reasons and Liverpool have until Friday to appeal. They run the risk of a longer ban if the appeal is deemed ‘frivolous’, and of damaging their ‘global brand’ (awful words) if the lessons of the previous Suarez saga look like they have not been learned. As for Suarez the individual, his last year of careful reputation-building has been wasted; he’s back to square one again (or behind it, in fact).

And yet in Uruguay, the reaction has been unequivocal. Suarez is a victim; the media and FA are out to get him; therefore it’s time he left England. “Surely he will leave Liverpool,” wrote El Pais on Thursday. “Suarez always wanted to stay in England despite the hostile climate and tempting offers but this time, the striker is willing to listen to his agent.” The paper added that Suarez is keeping a brave face on his latest problem, not wanting to upset his pregnant wife.
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Luis Suarez receives 10 match ban for biting another human being while playing a game

Posted by Richard Whittall under Luis Suarez on Apr 24, 2013

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From the FA website:

Liverpool striker Luis Suarez is suspended for ten matches after violent conduct charge
Luis Suarez has been suspended for a total of ten matches after an Independent Regulatory Commission today ruled on a charge of violent conduct.

A three-person Independent Regulatory Commission today upheld The FA’s claim that a suspension of three matches was clearly insufficient and the player will serve a further seven first-team matches in addition to the standard three. The suspension begins with immediate effect.

This follows an incident with Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic in Sunday’s fixture at Anfield.

Get ready for pointless acrimony from all the usual places, and all the closely monitored instances of hypocrisy, and why the FA should be disbanded, and why Suarez should be sent to prison, and on and on and on and on and on.

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The letter to Luis Suarez’s mom

Posted by Dustin Parkes under FA, Liverpool, Luis Suarez on Apr 22, 2013

FBL-ENG-PR-LIVERPOOL-CHELSEA-SUAREZOn Sunday, Liverpool striker Luis Suarez wounded Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanović’s arm with his teeth, in a practice that is commonly referred to as biting. He bit another human being. And not for the first time.

Such naughty behavior is perhaps more common to preschools than football pitches. At least, this seems to be the thinking of the English Football Association, which has decided to treat the incident as such by informing Suarez’s mother of the episode and requesting her assistance in ensuring that it does not happen again.

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The Story So Far — April 22nd Moral outrage at Suarez bite better directed elsewhere…

Posted by Richard Whittall under Liverpool, Luis Suarez on Apr 22, 2013

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The Lead

Ugh. I know, right?

So Luis Suarez bit Branislav Ivanovic during Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea. Then he scored LFC’s equalizer. That’s the player in a nutshell, essentially. This is why Liverpool’s managing director insisted Suarez would not be sold on for the incident. Which is the correct response because selling one of Liverpool’s major goal-scorers in a knee-jerk response to what will be some short-lived faux outrage and a lot of Twitter memes would be pretty stupid.

As for the LFC supporter machine, I haven’t run a comprehensive survey so I don’t know, but it’s interesting to me how the general mood on Twitter on Suarez has gone from “He’s not a bad person because he’s a good footballer, Evra’s a liar, Luis the best!” to “It doesn’t matter that he’s an adult man who bites other people in anger, he’s been great for us!”

Which I actually don’t have much problem with, really. Obviously in most other lines of work, biting someone would cost you your job. But this is football, so other standards apply. That is not a moral scandal, but part-and-parcel with conventional views on competition and anger in sports. Biting is really effing weird, no doubt, but in terms of violence it’s in and around the same region as punching someone in the face. Anyone who wants to make whiney faces about how football clubs used to be stacked with men of good character who take another look at Don Revie’s Leeds. As far as moral hazard, it’s certainly NOT in the same ballpark of seriousness as racist abuse.

There is only one concern, and again, it’s from the tactics used by the Liverpool PR squad. They’ve at least learned their lesson this time with the rapid and direct response, although they shouldn’t have brought Hillsborough into it, with public promises to devote Suarez’s fine to the Hillsborough Family Support Group. They should have donated the money but kept silence on the recipient; it’s inappropriate to use a public disaster as part of a damage control effort for a single, poorly-behaved player.

Other than that football people, keep your heads down, cringe at the bad memes that will circulate, and avoid the tabloids for the next little while. Nothing to see here.
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EPL Round-Up: Le Fondre adds to Newcastle’s misery

Posted by Devang Desai under Daniel Sturridge, EPL, Harry Redknapp, Liverpool, Luis Suarez, Manchester City, Newcastle, QPR, Stoke City, Sunderland, Swansea on Jan 19, 2013

The Fondre's equalizer.

Newcastle 1 – 2 Reading

Yohan Cabaye’s long awaited return was spoiled by the heroics of super-sub Adam Le Fondre. The new comeback kings of the prem did it again, scoring twice in six minutes to steal a crucial away victory at St.James Park. On the pitch for 55 seconds, Le Fondre connected on Jimmy Kebe’s cross to level the score. Replays  indicated the Frenchman Englishman may have scored with his forearm.

There were was no such controversy surrounding his second, as he smashed the ball past the outstretched arm of Tim Krul. Alan Pardew’s eight year deal looks more ridiculous by the week. Toon supporters were not happy when Cabaye was replaced by Gael Bigirimana in the 74th minute and Michael Williamson was a defensive liability once again. The Magpies travel to Villa Park next Tuesday. Read the rest of this entry »

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“Manchester United controls the media”

Posted by Richard Whittall under Liverpool, Luis Suarez, Manchester United, Media on Jan 16, 2013

The latest from the brain of Luis Suarez, courtesy of the Daily Mail, who reprinted Suarez’s remarks to Fox Sports Argentina:

‘When someone comes and says to me something bad about being a South American, I don’t cry, because that happens inside the pitch.

‘I have my conscience clean. But as I have said: Manchester United controls the media, they are powerful and the media will always help them.

‘I can help Liverpool today. We are united and we can play well. Liverpool doesn’t depend on me.

‘It’s complicated to play here in England. As Carlitos (Carlos Tevez) and Kun (Sergio Aguero) has said, it’s complicated for a South American footballer to be here as we are treated differently to the local footballers.

‘But they have their culture, they are like this, you know. I have to play football, which is what I always wanted, but I have suffered a lot for being a footballer.

There’s no mistaking that the English football media loves a winner, or that Sir Alex Ferguson has often used his significant ability to control the footballing narrative like no other manager. He admitted that he takes his club’s relationship with the domestic media very seriously in his interview with some Harvard Business School grad students last year.

This is a tricky subject to broach, but Suarez has instead wasted an opportunity to discuss the issue in earnest and instead put on his tinfoil hat. He can do this because he knows many within the Liverpool establishment will nod in agreement. This despite the regular criticism Sir Alex receives for his hypocrisy and his own lack of perspective on the persecution of Man United at the hands of the press.

What I think is fascinating here is the belief that the media narrative matters. That the coverage of the Daily Mail somehow filters its way down through the Football Association to the minds of its governors or through the Premier League into the minds of officials.

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