In a statement issued by FIFA's disciplinary committee after 10 hours of talks beginning Wednesday night, the world soccer body has banned Uruguay star player Luis Suarez from playing soccer for four months, Daily Mail reported. Aside from the ban, the Liverpool player will also need to shell out £65,000 in fines for his deplorable act on field during his team's game against Italy in the World Cup.
Although the punishment was not as grave as the maximum penalty FIFA could impose based on its disciplinary code, the ban itself could threaten the Uruguayan's career after the World Cup. This means that Suarez would be missing 13 Liverpool games aside from the ones Uruguay would be playing in the tournament. On the other hand, transfer negotiations were said to be not affected with the ban.
Swiss Claudio Sulser, chairman of the independent disciplinary committee, stated, "Such behavior cannot be tolerated on any football pitch, and in particularly not at a FIFA World Cup when the eyes of millions of people are on the stars on the field. The Disciplinary Committee took into account all the factors of the case and the degree of Mr Suarez's guilt in accordance with the relevant provisions of the code. The decision comes into affect as soon as it is communicated."
Suarez's problems with FIFA has started when during Uruguay's match against Italy, the player appeared to have bitten the left shoulder of Italian player Giorgio Chiellini. Chiellini was in obvious pain as both went down during the televised moment, and later on tried to catch the attention of a nearby referee by showing evident red marks no doubt from Suarez's bite.
At least Suarez's team is on his side regarding his ban. Daily Mail said Uruguay Football Association president Wilmar Valdez has expressed their intention to appeal against the ban, no doubt because of the Liverpool player's impressive skills that had helped the team to overcome some of the toughest teams in the tournament. Nonetheless, Suarez will not be able to aid his team's last 16 match against Colombia at the Maracana stadium.
