Suarez hand four-month ban for bite

By The Citizen

Uruguay striker Luis Suarez has been suspended from all football-related activity for four months for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini.

The Liverpool player, 27, has also been banned for nine international matches, ruling him out of the rest of the 2014 Fifa World Cup.

He will also miss the first nine games of the Premier League season.

The incident occurred during Tuesday’s 2014 World Cup Group D game, which Uruguay won to qualify for the last 16.

Uruguay have three days to appeal against the decision.

Suarez has also been fined 100,000 Swiss francs (£65,680).

The ban is the biggest in World Cup history, beating the eight games given to Italy’s Mauro Tassotti for elbowing Spain’s Luis Enrique in 1994.

“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,” Claudio Sulser, chairman of the Fifa disciplinary committee, said in a statement.

Fifa vice-president Jim Boyce added: “I think the punishment handed out to Luis Suarez is fully justified. Hopefully he will have learnt that this type of behaviour cannot be tolerated.”

The referee did not see Suarez bite Chiellini on the left shoulder, but Fifa ordered an inquiry after the match following protests by the Italian.

Suarez had initially shrugged off the incident.
“These are just things that happen out on the pitch,” he told Uruguayan television. “It was just the two of us inside the area and he bumped into me with his shoulder.”

Suarez’s first match back for Liverpool could be in round four of the Capital One Cup, with matches due to take place in the week commencing 27 October.

The Reds must win their third-round tie in September to reach that stage.

Suarez has now been found guilty of biting three opponents in his career. BBC