World Cup Brazil 2014 / Weltmeisterschaft Brasilien

[El Gordo]

Enough geeky pedantry, this is a thread for jingoistic Jocks only.
And what better event to return us to the self-righteous soap-box than a Luis Suarez biting? His third in relatively quick succession, a disturbing misdemeanour that will surely herald his demise on the world stage.
Or will it?

Despite his cannibalistic and racially abusive behaviour Suarez was lauded by players and pundits alike last season, sweeping the boards at the PFWA and the PFA awards. On phone-ins last night and this morning Liverpool fans leapt to the assailant's defence, claiming he is no worse than Eric 'Kung Fu' Cantona. Not sure about that. King Eric served an eight month ban for his - retaliatory - moment of madness, that FA sanction on top of the one his club imposed, and, unlike Suarez, did not re-offend. No ill-conceived t-shirt campaign in support of his actions, either. Suarez was set for a big move to Spain this summer. This latest episode will see his value plummet, if indeed the move can now go ahead at all. Liverpool may well have lost a prized asset through no fault of their own and should fine him accordingly. FIFA have announced an investigation. I hope I'm wrong but I can't see this concluding swiftly or decisively.

Suarez bit an opponent, just like Tyson on Holyfield. Suarez has now done that THREE TIMES.
Throw his sorry arse out of the game. And get him some therapy, FFS.

No comparison. Tyson bit Holyfield's f***ing ear off his f***ing head.

Stand aside, stand aside, it's time for me to get on the old high horse, if you're done with it (unlikely, I admit).

I thought the punishment way out of proportion to the offence.

By all means give him an international ban to remove any possibility of him reappearing in Brazil, but the additional 4 month ban which will remove him from another team entirely for the first 10 weeks or so of next season is simply unjust and disproportionate.

We can totally agree that he's an unsavoury character but there are a fair few of those about in the game. And we can agree that some punishment was in order, But what we won't agree on is its severity. I simply don't accept that the punishment fits the crime. People's indignation seems to be magnified by the singularity of the offence, while happy to turn a relatively blind eye to all sorts of other outrages like career-threatening challenges, some of which don't even get a card, and the endemic cheating that has drained the sport of all decency, to the point where it's considered OK to cheat in order to get a player sent off or to win a penalty that might determine the fate of an entire competition.

I heard an interview with an ex-footballer on the radio this morning (I didn't catch who it was as I missed the introduction) but he opined that he'd much rather have had the Suarez lovebite than the seriously broken leg that some other player had cynically provided him with, and for which no punishment at all was imposed.

On a quasi-legal note, I'm also puzzled by the double standards of the authorities here. There are other areas of the game where they say they can take no action because the referee didn't spot it, or didn't punish it at the time, or because the referee "didn't mention it in his post-match report", which always sounds especially pathetic to me. And yet if there's enough clamour, they seem prepared to respond with something suitably draconian to satisfy the blood lust of the sanctimonious hordes.

OK then. So this time they have punished the tooth-wielding Uruguayan in retrospect, on rather dodgy photographic evidence (did anyone else notice that the images published in the first 24 hours seemed to show almost nothing beyond a faint rouge effect, but by the time another day had gone by, the Italian fellow's shoulder looked like he'd been dragged from a lion's cage after the beast had been gnawing on his neck for a good 5 minutes). So now that they've set a precedent, let's have them continue with this very belated stand against the ills of the game. Let's have shocking tacklers sin-binned for 9 or 10 games. Let's have serial cheaters and divers handed out 4 month bans.

I wouldn't hold your collective breath on that one, chaps.

As for the transfer value of Suarez, and his career, I'm certain neither will be dented. When you're one of the best players in the world, it's astonishing how a frothing detractor today will become a doe-eyed devotee tomorrow, when he rocks up at his own football club.

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Right. Baton transferred. I'm off for a lie-down.