By Andrew Warshaw
July 1 – After a week of denials on his part and verbal attacks on both FIFA and the media by his compatriots, Luis Suarez has finally said that he did bite Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup, that he wasn’t the victim and that it will never happen again.
In a statement that makes a mockery of Uruguay’s accusations of a witchhunt and a conspiracy, Suarez says he has “had the opportunity to regain my calm and reflect about the reality of what occurred” in their final group game when the infamous bite overshadowed Urugay’s 1-0 win that knocked the Italians out of the competition.
The 27-year-old Liverpool striker, who was banned from all football for four months and from Uruguay’s next nine competitive internationals, said he “deeply regretted” what happened.
Initially he, Uruguay coach Oscar Washington Tabarez and a spate of officials and politicians back home, not least the President of Uruguay, had angrily refuted any suggestion that Suarez deliberately bit Chiellini just before the winning goal late in their Group D clash.
Suarez had even told the FIFA disciplinary panel which banned him that he had simply lost his balance.
However, the seven-member panel indicated that it had taken his record of two previous sanctions for biting into account when deciding the record World Cup punishment. Without Suarez Uruguay were eliminated by Colombia in the last 16 on Saturday.
Suarez’s full statement on his Twitter account is as follows:
“After several days of being home with my family I have had the opportunity to regain my calm and reflect about the reality of what occurred during the Italy-Uruguay match on 24 June 2014.
“Independent from the fallout and fhe contradicting declarations that have surfaced during these days, all of which have been without the intention of interfering with the good performance, of my national tean, the truth is that my colleague Giorgio Chiellini suffered the physical result of a bite in the collision he suffered with me.
“For this:
“I deeply regret what occurred;
“I apologse to Giorgio Chiellini and the entire football family;
“I vow to the public that there will never again be another incident like it.”
Quite how Suarez’s statement affects Uruguay’s decision to appeal against his sanction is interesting since there is bound to be speculation that it all forms part of a plan to help their attempt to get the ban reduced, possibly in order for him to move to Barcelona and be able to play as soon as possible. Chiellini himself has responded to Suarez’s apology by saying: “It’s all forgotten. I hope FIFA will reduce your suspension.”
The Uruguayans have until next Monday, July 7, to provide their written reasoning after which the FIFA appeals panel will sit to further consider the case.
Suarez will have missed a total of 39 matches because of biting offences if he ends up serving the full latest suspension.
His admission of guilt, which was entitled “My apologies to Chiellini”, came as the president of Uruguay, José Mujica, launched yet another verbal attack on FIFA, labelling them “a gang of old sons of bitches”.
In a rant on Uruguayan television shown up to be even more ridiculous by the player’s contrition, he described the severity of the ban as “fascist”.
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