Maybe somebody should actually FEED Luis Suarez (thesun.co.uk)
If you're not a regular reader here or a twitter follower, let me state one thing just right up front. I'm a Chelsea fan, so I'm not pretending that my thoughts here are unbiased. In fact, they're heavily biased, that's why I put the word "opinion" in the title. Also, I'm not sure anybody questions the ability that Luis Suarez has to do some amazing things on the pitch. He's a great goal scorer and can dish out the assists as well. Unfortunately, it could be that his other antics have finally gone too far this time.
The FA has hit Suarez with a violent conduct charge and a ten game ban after Suarez bit Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic during their 2-2 draw at Anfield last weekend. Suarez was not punished during the match and was still on the pitch to score a last minute equalizer when, had the referee gotten a good look at the incident, one would think he would have been red carded. For his part, Suarez accepted the violent conduct charge, but disputed that the usual three game ban was not enough. His pleas fell on deaf ears at the FA, which they rightly should have. More on that in a minute.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers, after condemning Suarez's act, has now come out and said that Suarez has been victimized by the FA, calling the ban overly harsh. It's easy to see why Rodgers would do this. Even with the acquisition of Daniel Sturridge, Liverpool has been pretty much a one man band up front with Suarez cranking out the hits, and dives, and yellows, and handballs, and now the bites.
Suarez is not a victim here. Yes, it's true that Ivanovic was not injured on the play. Still, Suarez made a choice to engage in an action that no sane footballer, let alone a sane human being, would undertake in the middle of a sporting match. Suarez knew that he has a long prior disciplinary record with the FA, and had to imagine that the act would bring about a lengthy ban. The FA had to put their foot down. He made a deliberate choice to do what he did, knowing the punishment could be harsh, and did it anyway. For Rodgers to portray him as a victim is idiotic, and goes far beyond a manager sticking up for his player. Some things are indefensible.
So why is the ten match ban for Suarez just about right? I'll give three reasons.
First, as mentioned earlier, Suarez has a long disciplinary history with the FA in his short time in England. To put it more simply, his reputation now precedes him. Of course the biggest issue prior to this was was the eight match ban he earned for racially abusing United's Patrice Evra. I'm not buying his explanation that "that's how we say stuff back at home." Evra's race didn't need to come into at all, period, and Bitey learned that lesson the hard way. He's had violent conduct bans before as well, plus he is a known cheater. He's one of the biggest divers in the Premier League and has shown his willingness to risk a handball when he thinks he can get away with it.
Second, Suarez has bitten people during matches before. A little over two years ago Bitey sank his teeth into PSV Eindhoven's Otman Bakkal, as seen in this pic from thetimes.co.uk:
Yum yum, right Bitey?
For that infraction, Suarez was handed a seven match ban by the Dutch FA. Taking that into account, the English FA would have looked silly by going any less than seven, and being that it was a second incident, really had to make it more. Something has to get installed in Bitey's brain that this behavior is unacceptable and is going to hurt both him and his club. Period.
Finally, Liverpool have to be given a reason to either regulate Suarez's behavior on their own, or send him packing. For two years now Liverpool managers, first King Kenny and now Rodgers, have looked the other way and winked at Bitey while he cheats and perpetrates his antics on the pitch. "Just keep scoring the goals, Bitey, and we'll brush everything else under the rug." Hell, they even wore tshirts supporting him during the racism row, yet I'm sure Liverpool fans would feel pretty hard done by if someone directed that word at one of their black players, and rightly so. Liverpool continue to take the results and the goals and are given little if any incentive to crack down on their player. I can totally see the thought process going like this Sunday afternoon: "He'll get a three game ban, which is fine, because we're out of the running for this year anyway. Then we can start again next year." Well oops, Bitey will miss the first, what, six matches of the 2013-2014 campaign? Now we're getting somewhere. Give Rodgers a reason to control him, or sell him somewhere else where he can disgrace another league.
Liverpool is a proud football club with a glorious history that their supporters, players, staff, and owners should quite rightly be very proud of. Their crest and banner inspire more passionate support and tradition than almost any other football club or sports team in the world, and again, rightly so. One would think that the supporters, players, staff, and owners would be tired of this joker tarnishing their image. I really hope Liverpool dumps him and gets a standup player worthy of the Premier League and the Liverpool crest. Then maybe the headlines coming out of Anfield can get back to football instead of sounding like they're previews for the new season of The Walking Dead.
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