There is no way the player can be defended for his vile actions, but the length of punishment dished out is absolutely ludicrous.
Liverpool were rightly aggrieved at the length of the ban and would be wise to appeal. Suarez perhaps would have been wise not to tempt the FA by suggesting before the ban was given that three matches would suffice. Particularly given he has previously served a ban of 7 games for the same offence. But the Uruguayan would also be right to feel persecuted.
The Premier League is in grave danger of chasing away one of its best players. This is not the way to treat one of the league’s stars. Sure, he is not above the law, but why is he treated differently from everyone else? The players who should be hounded out of the league are the likes of Ryan Shawcross and Lee Cattermole. Or in other words, the type of player who is exactly ‘that type of player’ that their managers constantly claim they are not. These players, who continually and consistently launch into reckless and over the top tackles, should not be in the league. They are the players who genuinely endanger the safety of their opponents.
Suarez’s bite on Ivanovic belongs in the same category as a player launching himself into an over the top and dangerous tackle. Is one thing worse than the other? Of course it is. Dangerous fouls, by their nature, endanger opponents. Bites are nasty but are hardly dangerous. So of course a bite should not receive as harsh a sanction as a dangerous tackle.
So we should consider this when looking at the Suarez case. If we are going to ban him for 10 games, then fine. But we should ban Shawcross for 15 games next time he breaks an opponent’s leg (which he probably will), or hound him out of the league – the same goes for Cattermole when he receives his 634th red card for a dangerously stupid tackle.
The reason Suarez is treated the way he is surely is because of the fact that he is a) foreign and b) media shy. Foreigners are treated with suspicion in England. Just the other day a commentator was saying that if Branislav Ivanovic played for Barcelona or Real Madrid he’d have rolled around on the floor complaining if his arm was bitten. This xenophobia characterises much of the English press, which curiously pays a blind eye to the fact that Ivanovic plays for the English team which more than any other looks to play act, time waste and get opponents into trouble. Chelsea’s gamesmanship is notorious.
So Suarez is foreign, but that is not completely it. Vincent Kompany is also foreign, but then again he was excused his over the top lunge on Jack Wilshere earlier this season, for which he somehow had his red card rescinded, because he is very media friendly, with contacts in the press and has even appeared on Match of the Day. The English press notoriously defends its friends, whether it is Harry Redknapp or Martin O’Neill, from criticism. But a player like Suarez, who does not waste his time cosying up to the media, is easy prey and vulnerable. It is this despicable attitude which is costing English football dearly. If Suarez was to leave, understandably, because of the attitude of the authorities, opposition and press, it would be a travesty. He is no angel, but then he is not alone in that. And we would feel his loss a lot more than he’d miss us.
