By Andrew Warshaw
July 11 – Not surprisingly Luis Suarez and the Uruguayan football federation have had their protest against his ban for that notorious World Cup bite rejected by the FIFA appeals committee.
The appeal was lodged against the four-month sanction, plus nine competitive international games and a SFr100,000 ($112,000) fine, imposed on the striker by FIFA’s disciplinary committee for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini during their group stage clash.
The matter may not be over quite yet, however, as both the player and his federation can make a further appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
After lodging his appeal, Suarez, who served one game in Uruguay’s second-round elimination by Colombia, issued a formal apology to Chiellini and vowed never to bite anyone again while his federation described FIFA’s ruling as an “excessive” for which “there was not enough evidence”. But the FIFA appeals committee upheld the original punishment in its entirely.
Although he received huge sympathy back home, Suarez brought disgrace on himself and the tournament and faces being out of club football until the end of October, during which time he will not be allowed to train with a club.
FIFA has confirmed that the ban will not, however, stand in the way of Suarez’s transfer from Liverpool to Barcelona, who are reported to have agreed to buy the player for £75 million.
Should Suarez and the Uruguayan FA decide to appeal further, ordinarily CAS would sit and hear the matter while the player adheres to the terms of his ban. However, as the World Cup is still ongoing, they could apply to the CAS ‘ad-hoc’ division, which exists for the duration of the tournament to hear matters such as this. The ad-hoc division could then technically suspend the sanctions pending a full hearing later in the year, allowing Suarez to play and take part in “football related activities” in the meantime.
The ban was the biggest in World Cup history, beating the eight games given to Italy’s Mauro Tassotti for elbowing Spain’s Luis Enrique in 1994. Suarez has now been found guilty of biting three opponents in his career.
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