SUAREZ BAN NEEDS RETHINK

This Luiz Suarez situation has me puzzled. In case you missed it, Suarez, the Uruguay and Liverpool striker bit into the shoulder of Italian player Giorgia Chiellini this week during a match in which Italy was beaten 0-1 and eliminated from the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

FIFA executives convened and came up with a nine match, four-month ban from all football related activities. What that basically means is that Suarez will not be able to play for his country for nine matches but he will also be unable to represent his club Liverpool for 13 matches – nine premier league matches, three Champions League matches and one League Cup game. And that is what I have a problem with.

I agree completely that he should be sanctioned. This is his third biting incident since 2010 when he first sunk his teeth into the shoulder of PSG’s Ottman Bakkal. He was banned for seven games for that incident, and 10 for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic in the 2012/2013 season . Because of that ban he missed the last five games of the season and the first five of this 2013/2014 season that just ended in May. So this is the third such incident in four years. It could have been worse because he did try to bite Chiellini during last year’s Confederations Cup.

Luiz Suarez has a problem, one that needs to be fixed and banning him representing his country is perhaps a first step. However, for Liverpool, for whom he represents a lot of value both in terms of skill and dollars, this is like a kick in the teeth or a hole in the pocket. Playing for your country is one thing but playing for your club is business. It is why Liverpool is looking at taking some form of legal action to have the ban either reduced our overturned.

When Suarez was banned from representing Liverpool, the infraction he committed was while he was wearing a Liverpool shirt, and as far as I know he was not prevented from representing Uruguay during that time. This latest transgression was committed while the player was on international duty so why is his club having to suffer even greater consequences for it. It’s not good math. He misses nine games for his country and 13 for his club, who he wasn’t even representing at the time he was sanctioned? How does that make sense?

Why not, say, ban from from representing his country for two years and fine him a million euros? And while they’re at it make it mandatory that he receive psychological treatment that will allow him to overcome this impulse that overtakes him in the middle of matches. That to me, makes a lot more sense.

FIFA understands the business of football and its why they have a billion dollars in the bank and continue to rake him truckloads of money from the most popular sport on earth, so surely they must know that the four-month ban from all football-related activities makes little business sense.

It is one thing to punish the player but punishing the club is ridiculous. Liverpool may want to keep him or sell him to Barcelona and find a replacement in time to see them campaign effectively in the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup next season that is less than 50 days away. Someone needs to put on their thinking caps and rethink the way this ban has been imposed. Punish the player for the transgression, but not his club and certainly, not the game.