Considering Luis Suarez had just received a seven-match ban and been branded the ‘Cannibal of Ajax’ when he moved to Anfield in January, Liverpool should perhaps have realised their new £22.8million signing might land himself in hot water sooner or later.
Unfortunately for them, it was sooner.
Having already divided opinion in England over the last 11 months by tarnishing his undoubted talent by going to ground too easily too often, the Uruguay striker stands guilty of the far more serious offence of racially abusing Patrice EvraÂ
As the 24-year-old digests his eight-match ban and £40,000 fine, let’s not forget he still has to face a separate FA charge for allegedly making a one-fingered gesture at Fulham fans.
It would be fair to say that Suarez, who learned his trade on the streets of Montevideo after moving to the Uruguayan capital at the age of seven with his mother and six brothers, has not been a stranger to controversy.
The cannibal tag was coined by Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf after he bit into the shoulder of opponent Otman Bakkal during a game between Ajax and PSV Eindhoven in November last year.
Ajax took the matter into their own hands, fining Suarez and giving him a two-match ban, but the Dutch FA swiftly increased that to seven games, and it was during the enforced lay-off that Liverpool made their move.
That was the second time he had been suspended by Ajax. The first occasion followed an incident in November 2007 when he was involved in a dressing-room bust-up with team-mate Albert Luque over a free-kick routine that went wrong in a game against Feyenoord.
Suarez, whose move to Amsterdam from Groningen had been far from smooth after an arbitration panel rejected his attempt to force the transfer through, also upset Ajax coach Marco van Basten with the number of bookings brought about by his quick temper and penchant for diving.
It was a problem that marred his debut for Uruguay in a World Cup qualifier against Colombia in 2007, when he was sent off in the 85th minute after picking up a second yellow for dissent.
If that went largely unnoticed outside his homeland, Suarez’s next red card for Uruguay earned him worldwide notoriety.
Johannesburg, July 2010. Uruguay knocked out Ghana — Africa’s last remaining representative in the first World Cup to be staged on the continent — in a quarter-final shootout, but only after Suarez had been sent off in the final moments of extra-time for deliberately blocking Dominic Adiyiah’s goalbound header with his hands.
If Suarez’s actions were understandable to many, his wild celebrations in the tunnel when Asamoah Gyan missed the resulting penalty left a sour taste, as did his ‘Hand of God’ status in Uruguay.
‘He’s the most hated man in Ghana,’ Gyan would later say. Suarez responded: ‘It was something that happened in the heat of the moment. As time has gone by, I have had time to reflect on the whole episode and I can now understand the controversy it has caused.’Â
His supporters prefer to overlook the chequered past and point to the sublime skill and ability in front of goal that has terrorised Premier League defences and brought 12 goals in 30 games for Liverpool.
Some inevitably bring up the charity work. ‘Football has got this tremendous power of joining people, without any skin, religion and social discrimination,’ Suarez once said.
Those words might now sound a little hollow.
PS
If Luis Suarez thinks an eight-game ban is hefty, it could get even worse. He is still facing an FA improper conduct charge for an alleged abusive hand gesture in the recent 1-0 defeat at Fulham.
The Uruguayan appeared to raise the middle finger of his left hand towards home fans as he left the pitch.
Source: Daily Mail