By Andrew Warshaw
April 22 – Luis Suarez, one of world football’s most gifted and exciting strikers but with a hot-headed temperament that undermines his brilliant talents, faces a lengthy ban after biting an opponent in Sunday’s Premier League showdown with Chelsea.
Television pictures flashed around the world showed the Uruguayan forward sinking his teeth, Mike Tyson-style, into the arm of Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic, drawing widespread condemnation from across the sport.
Suarez immediately apologised for his “unacceptable behaviour” and has been fined by Liverpool whose managing director Ian Ayre said such antics did not “befit” that of a Liverpool player.
“Luis is aware that he has let himself and everyone associated with the club down,” said Ayre, who cancelled a planned trip to Australia to personally handle the fallout. But the Football Association seem bound to take strong action against Suarez who courts controversy and was banned for eight games in December 2011 for verbal racist abuse.
It is not the first time that Suarez has bitten an opponent. He was banned for seven games after biting PSV Eindhoven midfielder Otman Bakkal during a match in November 2010.
The latest misdemeanour in a dire disciplinary record will do Suarez no favours when it comes to his chances of winning footballer of year. Ironically he scored Liverpool’s stoppage-time equaliser in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with the last action of the game, a result overshadowed by an act condemned even by Liverpool fans as indefensible.
Frequently accused of diving, last month Suarez punched Chile’s Gonzalo Jara during a South American World Cup qualifier, an incident missed by the Argentinian referee. FIFA opened disciplinary action though Uruguayan federation president Sebastian Bauza insisted Suarez was a victim, not for the first time, of unfair persecution.
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