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Luis Suarez Bite – What Punishment Does He Actually Deserve?

By on June 27, 2014

Learn from your mistakes might be a good rule for Luis Suarez to follow. Less than a year ago he was still under a ten match suspension from biting Chelsea’s Bransilav Ivanovic during a league match with Liverpool. You would think that a world-class player, arguably the best in his country, would stop at that. And while that wasn’t even the first time he had found himself suspended after biting an opponent, he has now, not even a year on from the Uruguayan’s infamous bite on Ivanovic, barred those famous teeth again.

Suarez lunged himself at Giorgio Chiellini, and snuck into the Italian’s neck with his “fangs”. It was plain to see the bite marks on Chiellini’s shoulder; the center-back’s shirt was also torn, yet the Mexican referee Marco Rodríguez, nicknamed “Dracula”, didn’t spot it.  And as a result, Suarez will miss Uruguay’s remaining journey at the World Cup, finding himself suspended for nine matches. Suarez is also banned from any football activities, for club of country, for four months. Many were calling for FIFA, who had it within their powers to ban Suarez for up to twenty-four matches or two years, to impose a lengthy ban on Suarez, but none were expecting the depth of FIFA’s punishment. After all, it isn’t as if biting opponents can physically damage them as much as, say, a head-butt or rash elbow to the face can. But that’s the thing, it isn’t necessarily like that – a violent act. It’s just weird, something like former Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Goycochea’s habit of urinating on the pitch before facing a penalty. So does it deserve the same punishment that a head-butt does? Suarez’s two previous bite’s on opponents yielded seven, and ten match bans, respectively. Zinedine Zidane’s infamous head-butt on Marco Materazz in the 2006 World Cup final only rewarded him with a three match ban, granted it was mostly a ceremonial ban as the French legend was retiring from international football after the match.

Frankly, nobody, even Chiellini, as he expressed in his blog, wanted to see Suarez banned from any football for a third of a year. Why dampen the he entertainment the sport provides by banning one of its best players for a long period of time? And what will happen if Suarez bites again? FIFA would surely not want to stretch its abilities further.

Yet it is Suarez himself who makes him all the more susceptible to large punishments. He even had the gaul to deny biting Chiellini. “I had contact with his shoulder, chest against shoulder and I got a knock to the eye – nothing more,” Suarez claimed.

But why, still, should Liverpool, Suarez’s club, be punished for his actions for Uruguay? The English club might well have to pay a player who cant even show up for training £3.5 million in wages during his ban, much less suffer from losing their best player for a third of their season. Liverpool, thousands of miles away from Brazil and in no control of what Uruguay does whatsoever, suffer? Undoubtedly, Suarez should be suspended from playing for Uruguay for a lengthy period – probably even more than just nine matches. But the fact that FIFA banned Suarez from even attending training for Liverpool is shocking, especially when Liverpool are not even allowed to offer evidence for or against Suarez. On paper, they have the power to ban players from representing their club, but in practice, it hardly ever happens. The English FA bans don’t affect UEFA matches, nor vice-versa.

But is this even the way to stop Suarez from biting – imposing lengthily bans? Undoubtedly, the resolution needs to go more personal than that. However, FIFA should not be trying to overstep their boundaries; whatever Suarez does deserve should only affect him on the international stage, not for playing for Liverpool. If The Reds would like to impose a small ban on Suarez, let them do that themselves.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.