Luis Suárez bitten by Fifa four-month ban amid day of drama at World Cup

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/26/luis-suarez-americas

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On a day the biter got bit, a Brazilian World Cup that had been thrillingly eventful on the pitch exploded dramatically into life off it.

Having last week knocked England out of the tournament, Uruguay striker Luis Suárez was on Thursday banned from all "football related activities" for four months for biting the Italian Giorgio Chiellini during a 1-0 victory on Tuesday.

The unprecedented punishment provoked howls of dismay from Montevideo to Anfield, with the president of the Uruguayan FA Wilmar Valdez saying it felt as though his side had been "thrown out of the World Cup".

Not only has Suárez played his last match in this World Cup, but he will miss almost a quarter of Liverpool's Premier League matches and their first three Champions League fixtures next season.

There will now be inevitable questions over his future on Merseyside, where he has been feted by fans and his manager Brendan Rodgers, who had claimed he was a reformed character.

It is the third time in his career that Suárez, named footballer of the year last season by both his fellow professionals and journalists, has been banned for sinking his teeth into an opponent.

Added to previous penalties for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra and for biting Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic, it means that he will have been suspended for 34 matches since 2010.

Suárez was also banned for nine competitive international matches and fined 100,000 Swiss francs as Fifa took decisive action over an incident that threatened to puncture its cloying "fair play" rhetoric.

"Such behaviour cannot be tolerated on any football pitch, and in particular not at a Fifa World Cup when the eyes of millions of people are on the stars on the field," said Claudio Sulser, the former Switzerland striker who chairs Fifa's disciplinary committee. "The disciplinary committee took into account all the factors of the case and the degree of Mr Suárez's guilt in accordance with the relevant provisions of the code."

The punishment handed down to Suárez forbids him from entering any football stadium during his four-month ban. Nor can the player, who fought back from a knee injury to appear at the World Cup, train with his Uruguay or Liverpool teammates.

On a day of turmoil, two Ghanaian stars were sent home for fighting with team officials amid chaos in their camp, and a crunch match between USA and Germany was almost flooded off in Recife.

Ghana, whose president had had to charter a flight to Brazil containing £1.76m in cash to avert a strike over unpaid fees, suspended Sulley Muntari and Kevin-Prince Boateng. The chaos enveloping the Ghanaian camp increased fears among African officials that events in Brazil could undermine attempts to project a more professional image in the wake of the continent's first World Cup four years ago.

Images circulated of defender John Boye, who later scored an own goal against Portugal, kissing a huge wad of cash and of a team official handing out cash from an envelope.

The players received up to $100,000 each after the country's president chartered a flight to bring the fees into Brazil to appease players who demanded payment in cash rather than by bank transfer.

Muntari, who plays for Milan, was suspended "in the wake of his unprovoked physical attack on an executive committee member", said the Ghanaian FA in a statement.

It said Boateng, who plays in Germany for Schalke, was dropped from the squad because of "vulgar verbal insults targeted at coach Kwesi Appiah" during a training session this week.

The cash-strapped Ghanaian FA had been forced to ask Fifa for an advance on the $8m each team was guaranteed in prize money. The governing body said it was evaluating the request.

In Recife, torrential rain led to flooded streets and traffic chaos ahead of the match between Germany and the USA. But despite the flooding, the match went ahead as planned.

Overnight, the tension in the Uruguay camp had been building as everyone from the head of their FA to the country's president had come out in support of Suárez.They claimed there was a conspiracy against the player from a coalition that included the English media, the Italians and their Brazilian hosts.

As Fifa's disciplinary committee, which had met late into the night, handed down its decision Uruguay immediately said they would appeal. However, any appeal will not be heard for three days and will not prevent Suárez being banned from Saturday's match with Colombia.

"It is a severe punishment. I don't know exactly which arguments they used but it is a tough punishment for Suárez," said Valdez, the Uruguayan FA boss. "It feels like Uruguay has been thrown out of the World Cup. We all know what Suárez means to Uruguay and to football around the world – not having Suárez would be a loss to any team."

The Uruguayan team trained without Suárez in Natal before travelling to Rio de Janeiro ahead of their last-16 clash with Colombia.

A siege mentality has settled over the Uruguayan camp, who believe that Suárez is being unfairly targeted. "You shouldn't forget that we're rivals of many and we can be for the hosts [Brazil] in the future. This does not go against what might have happened, but there's no doubt that Suárez is a stone in the shoe for many," said Suárez's lawyer Alejandro Balbi before the punishment was announced.

At the iconic Copacabana Palace on the beachfront in Rio, gaggles of reporters mixed with fans scurrying to watch the last round of group stage matches on big screens as Fifa president Sepp Blatter swept into the hotel without commenting on the Suárez incident.

Outside, a group of Uruguayan fans huddled in their country's flag contemplated three days during which they had gone from celebrating qualifying for the next round to seeing their talismanic striker become a pariah once more.

Most in the country harbour a burning sense of injustice, despite the compelling evidence against Suárez.

Martin Chaquero, a journalist from GolTV in Uruguay called the punishment "tremendously excessive" and said Fifa had discriminated against Suárez, treating him "like a delinquent" by even banning him from stadiums.