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| Parting of ways as Uruguay hit Rio and Luis Suárez heads for Montevideo | Parting of ways as Uruguay hit Rio and Luis Suárez heads for Montevideo |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Luis Suárez delivered his farewells back at the beach-front Sehrs Grand hotel in Natal. There were emotional embraces with medical staff and management, the forward a picture of misery as he contemplated a flight home to Montevideo when all roads should have been leading to the Maracanã. | Luis Suárez delivered his farewells back at the beach-front Sehrs Grand hotel in Natal. There were emotional embraces with medical staff and management, the forward a picture of misery as he contemplated a flight home to Montevideo when all roads should have been leading to the Maracanã. |
| Team-mates, recently returned from their morning training drills at Estádio Maria Lamas Farache, queued up to offer Luisito their sympathy, support and solidarity as the true weight of Fifa’s unprecedented ban sank in. The captain, Diego Lugano, eventually took to social media to speak of “outrage” and an overriding sense of “helplessness”. Then the familiar accusations of injustice reared once again. | Team-mates, recently returned from their morning training drills at Estádio Maria Lamas Farache, queued up to offer Luisito their sympathy, support and solidarity as the true weight of Fifa’s unprecedented ban sank in. The captain, Diego Lugano, eventually took to social media to speak of “outrage” and an overriding sense of “helplessness”. Then the familiar accusations of injustice reared once again. |
| “We would like a fairer world, but that world simply does not exist,” wrote the West Bromwich Albion defender. “The people who are in charge are in charge, and the strong are strong. They do not judge us by the same law. Embrace Luis who, as always, will get back on his feet again. And especially embrace his family who are always the ones who suffer most in cases like this. They should still be proud of him. He deserves that.” | “We would like a fairer world, but that world simply does not exist,” wrote the West Bromwich Albion defender. “The people who are in charge are in charge, and the strong are strong. They do not judge us by the same law. Embrace Luis who, as always, will get back on his feet again. And especially embrace his family who are always the ones who suffer most in cases like this. They should still be proud of him. He deserves that.” |
| Never mind this was the third incident of biting an opponent in four years to have blighted Suárez’s career. Rather, the established order was ganging up against this team and their talisman. The suspicion is that the striker will be greeted in his homeland as a returning hero rather than a pariah whose latest spasm of indiscipline has most likely wrecked Uruguay’s chances at this World Cup. | Never mind this was the third incident of biting an opponent in four years to have blighted Suárez’s career. Rather, the established order was ganging up against this team and their talisman. The suspicion is that the striker will be greeted in his homeland as a returning hero rather than a pariah whose latest spasm of indiscipline has most likely wrecked Uruguay’s chances at this World Cup. |
| The ramifications of Suárez’s gnaw at Giorgio Chiellini’s left shoulder during the victory over Italy this week are still being digested around the world. A night of deliberation by Fifa’s six-strong disciplinary committee, chaired by the Swiss lawyer Claudio Sulser, had culminated in the announcement, delivered in a rather sterile media auditorium deep in the bowls of the Maracanã, at a little after 10.30am on Thursday. | |
| Their message was clear enough. The Dutch league had banned the striker for seven matches for a similar offence on PSV Eindhoven’s Otman Bakkal in November 2010. The Premier League had opted for 10 when his victim was Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic in April 2013. Fifa, an organisation attempting to retain the pretence of occupying the moral high ground despite the claim and counter-claim surrounding the award of these finals to Qatar in eight years’ time, will not tolerate such behaviour. Image, after all, is everything. | Their message was clear enough. The Dutch league had banned the striker for seven matches for a similar offence on PSV Eindhoven’s Otman Bakkal in November 2010. The Premier League had opted for 10 when his victim was Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic in April 2013. Fifa, an organisation attempting to retain the pretence of occupying the moral high ground despite the claim and counter-claim surrounding the award of these finals to Qatar in eight years’ time, will not tolerate such behaviour. Image, after all, is everything. |
| Arguably as shocking as the offence itself are the numbers which will dominate Suárez’s immediate future: a four-month ban from “all football activities”; a nine-match suspension from Uruguay’s competitive fixtures that will take in Saturday’s last-16 tie with Colombia and any further games in this tournament, next year’s Copa America in Chile and, most likely, part of the 2016 centenary tournament in the United States; nine Premier League games, three Champions League group games and one Capital One Cup tie with Liverpool. He will not be eligible to play for his club until their game at Newcastle on 1 November – a week before Chelsea visit Anfield – effectively meaning he will have been banned for 48 matches since 2010 without ever having been shown a red card. Or suffering a serious injury. | Arguably as shocking as the offence itself are the numbers which will dominate Suárez’s immediate future: a four-month ban from “all football activities”; a nine-match suspension from Uruguay’s competitive fixtures that will take in Saturday’s last-16 tie with Colombia and any further games in this tournament, next year’s Copa America in Chile and, most likely, part of the 2016 centenary tournament in the United States; nine Premier League games, three Champions League group games and one Capital One Cup tie with Liverpool. He will not be eligible to play for his club until their game at Newcastle on 1 November – a week before Chelsea visit Anfield – effectively meaning he will have been banned for 48 matches since 2010 without ever having been shown a red card. Or suffering a serious injury. |
| Some might question whether he is worth all the hassle, though the memory of those sublime finishes which illuminated the English domestic game last season will insist he is. Liverpool have been here before, not only with the Ivanovic incident but the eight-match suspension meted out by the Football Association after Suárez was found guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra. | Some might question whether he is worth all the hassle, though the memory of those sublime finishes which illuminated the English domestic game last season will insist he is. Liverpool have been here before, not only with the Ivanovic incident but the eight-match suspension meted out by the Football Association after Suárez was found guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra. |
| Yet, at present, the Merseyside club are still endeavouring to discover whether their forward will even be able to train with the first-team squad at Melwood over the duration of the four-month sanction. The Premier League club released the blandest of holding statements on Thursday but they understandably need time to take stock and, technically with no means of appealing against Fifa’s decision themselves, seek legal advice on their own position. The chief executive, Ian Ayre, enjoys a close relationship with the Uruguayan’s agent, Pere Guardiola, and there will be talks between employer and representative in the days ahead. | Yet, at present, the Merseyside club are still endeavouring to discover whether their forward will even be able to train with the first-team squad at Melwood over the duration of the four-month sanction. The Premier League club released the blandest of holding statements on Thursday but they understandably need time to take stock and, technically with no means of appealing against Fifa’s decision themselves, seek legal advice on their own position. The chief executive, Ian Ayre, enjoys a close relationship with the Uruguayan’s agent, Pere Guardiola, and there will be talks between employer and representative in the days ahead. |
| The fear is their player, convinced as he is that he has been victimised over these regular offences, may insist he needs a fresh start, in Spain at Barcelona or Real Madrid. Regardless, the hierarchy at Anfield will not lower their valuation of the 27-year-old even if he is perceived as damaged goods. The price tag will remain up to £80m. Those suitors may still consider him a risk worth taking for a player who contributed 31 league goals to Liverpool’s resurgent season – the thought of the Uruguayan lining up alongside Lionel Messi and Neymar, or Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo, is mouth-watering – but the implications of the worldwide ban are for them to confront. | The fear is their player, convinced as he is that he has been victimised over these regular offences, may insist he needs a fresh start, in Spain at Barcelona or Real Madrid. Regardless, the hierarchy at Anfield will not lower their valuation of the 27-year-old even if he is perceived as damaged goods. The price tag will remain up to £80m. Those suitors may still consider him a risk worth taking for a player who contributed 31 league goals to Liverpool’s resurgent season – the thought of the Uruguayan lining up alongside Lionel Messi and Neymar, or Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo, is mouth-watering – but the implications of the worldwide ban are for them to confront. |
| Those on Merseyside will hardly be distraught if an acceptable bid fails to materialise. They had welcomed the forward back into the fold last autumn apparently rehabilitated and remorseful and, despite the demons having only been temporarily banished, watched him score 19 times in 13 games. | Those on Merseyside will hardly be distraught if an acceptable bid fails to materialise. They had welcomed the forward back into the fold last autumn apparently rehabilitated and remorseful and, despite the demons having only been temporarily banished, watched him score 19 times in 13 games. |
| There were three fans sporting hooky Liverpool replica shirts outside the Copacabana Palace hotel, where the delegation from the Uruguayan Football Association were deliberating their next move, on Thursday morning as Pharrell Williams’ Happy blared out over a neighbouring cafe’s loudspeaker system on permanent loop. Across the Avenida Atlantica other supporters were still stopping outside Fifa’s Fan Fest to have their photographs taken in front of the Adidas billboard from which Suárez’s image stared out, teeth bared almost prophetically, alongside the company’s slogan of the moment, Tudo ou nada. The player can expect another reminder from the boot manufacturer that “all or nothing” must still only be applied within reason. | There were three fans sporting hooky Liverpool replica shirts outside the Copacabana Palace hotel, where the delegation from the Uruguayan Football Association were deliberating their next move, on Thursday morning as Pharrell Williams’ Happy blared out over a neighbouring cafe’s loudspeaker system on permanent loop. Across the Avenida Atlantica other supporters were still stopping outside Fifa’s Fan Fest to have their photographs taken in front of the Adidas billboard from which Suárez’s image stared out, teeth bared almost prophetically, alongside the company’s slogan of the moment, Tudo ou nada. The player can expect another reminder from the boot manufacturer that “all or nothing” must still only be applied within reason. |
| The Uruguayan FA’s president, Wilmar Valdez, eventually emerged to confirm that an appeal would be forthcoming, that the player would be returning home “to recover”, and to denounce the sanction as “excessive”. Back home the minister for tourism and sport, Liliam Kechichián, opted for “disproportionate”. | |
| “There was not enough evidence and I have seen more aggressive incidents recently,” added Valdez. “We all know what Suárez means to Uruguay and to football around the world. Not having Suárez would be a loss to any team. It feels like Uruguay has been thrown out of the World Cup.” | “There was not enough evidence and I have seen more aggressive incidents recently,” added Valdez. “We all know what Suárez means to Uruguay and to football around the world. Not having Suárez would be a loss to any team. It feels like Uruguay has been thrown out of the World Cup.” |
| The immediate implications would, indeed, appear to be grim. When the player was absent following keyhole surgery on his left knee in the opening Group D fixture, it was all too apparent age was catching up with Diego Forlán. Óscar Tabárez’s team, even with Edinson Cavani in their number, were blunted. Colombia, a team crammed with their own lavish talents, will surely fancy their chances. | The immediate implications would, indeed, appear to be grim. When the player was absent following keyhole surgery on his left knee in the opening Group D fixture, it was all too apparent age was catching up with Diego Forlán. Óscar Tabárez’s team, even with Edinson Cavani in their number, were blunted. Colombia, a team crammed with their own lavish talents, will surely fancy their chances. |
| Yet Uruguay arrived at Rio’s Radisson Barra hotel on Thursday night a squad angered and, as a result, more motivated than ever. If Suárez embodies la garra charra, that fighting competitiveness that has allowed a country of around three million people and crammed between the footballing superpowers of Brazil and Argentina, to punch above their weight, then he will have fuelled that same spirit among his team-mates in absentia. “Fuerza Luis! Más unidos que nunca,” tweeted the Uruguayan FA. “Vamos Uruguay!” “Be strong, Luis! More united than ever. Come on Uruguay!” | Yet Uruguay arrived at Rio’s Radisson Barra hotel on Thursday night a squad angered and, as a result, more motivated than ever. If Suárez embodies la garra charra, that fighting competitiveness that has allowed a country of around three million people and crammed between the footballing superpowers of Brazil and Argentina, to punch above their weight, then he will have fuelled that same spirit among his team-mates in absentia. “Fuerza Luis! Más unidos que nunca,” tweeted the Uruguayan FA. “Vamos Uruguay!” “Be strong, Luis! More united than ever. Come on Uruguay!” |
| Theirs is a message of defiance, however misplaced the siege mentality might appear. “Nothing will stop us,” Lugano had added before the team flew south without the man whose goals had so wrecked English hopes in Sao Paulo. “We move forward with humility, unity, commitment, aware of the mistakes we make and with our heads forever held high.” | Theirs is a message of defiance, however misplaced the siege mentality might appear. “Nothing will stop us,” Lugano had added before the team flew south without the man whose goals had so wrecked English hopes in Sao Paulo. “We move forward with humility, unity, commitment, aware of the mistakes we make and with our heads forever held high.” |