Luis Suarez Banned Eight Matches, Club Responds

even if he made a comment he would be saying the truth

Reading the language of the decision, the player has 14 days to appeal after the written reasons are provided. Assuming the FA take Christmas leave, we'd be looking at a month at least for this. This means that it'd be six weeks until the ban would kick in which puts us into February.

Then we have the appellant process which, even if it takes half as long as the original charge to resolve, means that this ban may not even begin until March (assuming it stands).

So anyone hoping for a speedy resolution or thinking we're in a panic for a replacement... just take a breath.

Are the FA doing this Cameron style at the EU summit.  Meaningless veto to stir the pot, then all the back tracking starts.  

But they got a publicity message out, and even if the ban is overturned much later down the road, they look strong.

Never mind it trashes a club and player's reputation.

I hope Kenny buys Andy Carroll a keg of Red Bull before every game.  He is going to destroy the mancs like the absolute ogre he was born to be

This is so disgraceful on so many levels, the FA is so racist its not even funny

-Millennium Sports and Entertainment

Interesting comment from Tim Vickery:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/h... 

And that's the last I'm saying on the matter...I'm off to man the barricades for the coming War against the FA.

This is a ridiculously ludicrous decision. Where's the testimony from the referee who supposedly witnessed the altercation? Where the testimony from Evra's teammates who regularly call him whatever name Suarez allegedly called him on a regular basis and were surprised by his reaction? Where's the video evidence if he did actually utter the hateful remark "over 10 times"? ManU-Liverpool is still the country's biggest fixture, there were enough cameras there for each player to take five home and still have quite a few left in the stadium. WHERE'S THE EVIDENCE? 

This is the same FA that appealed Rooney's obviously deliberate Karate Kid kick on another player? The same FA that's dragging their heels on the John Terry case, their morally questionable captain who's been charged of the same crime? Violence and racism are acceptable from their England stars?

They have demonstrated hypocrisy, partisanship and incompetence to the nth degree and Liverpool should fight this farce of a decision tooth and nail. Whether Suarez did utter the remark or not (and I sincerely doubt he did), that's not even the issue anymore. The issue has become the painfully transparent anti-Liverpool agenda the FA don't bother to try to keep subtle anymore. I don't care if it takes another appearance for Liverpool in the High Court, but outrageous out-right BULLSHIT must be put to a stop. We are extremely fortunate and grateful to have The King back on his throne, shining crown on sideways above his toothy grin, to lead this fight against outright bollocks. YNWA LUIS!

"will provide written reasons in due course..." is the most ridiculous part... as if they haven't had enough time in the past MONTHS to come up withe their reasons and write them down on some fancy letterhead...

Too right, man.

I am black and i can say that SUAREZ is the last person I would call racist. Suarez' grandfather was black, suarez sponsers racism fighting foundations in south america and africa. Suarez comes from the arguably most multi cultural country in the world. I fucking saw suarez kiss johnson on the cheek when he scored the chelsea winner.
This case should be judged outside the realm of football.
If this this punishment is imposed on suarez, we can all be sure that there is bribery and corruption involved in the FA.

LFC should better do something really quick about this or next season they might see suarez wanting to leave the club and go to a country were he will be better respected.
Evra is a coward and has his own race issues, he couldnt defeat suarez on the football pitch so his taking his personal issues out on suarez.!!!!

Of course there is bribery within the FA. How could there not be when there is so much of it going on in the European and World ruling bodies. The FA themselves wanted to stamp this out when they didn't win the bid for the world cup but yet they seem to endorse it themselves.

John Terry for example has camera evidence against him and he'll get away with maybe at the most a fine just because he is English. There is nobody more racist in English football than the English FA themselves.

So after months of waiting and the 14-day appeal, Luis gets a ban of the exact length so that he will miss the next match against Manchester United, who he absolutely destroyed in the same fixture last season. What a coincidence.

im not usually one for conspiracy theories, but this is pretty mightily coincidental... and they haven't gotten their shit together enough to come up with the reasons/evidence as to why?  geddafuckouttahere...

Have a look at King Kenny's Twitter. It says it all.

If King Kenny backs Luis Suarez then he is innocent pure and simple. I have too much respect for the King to ever believe that he would back a racist.

Luis Suarez YNWA
King Kenny - A man I respect and admire always.

i dunno man, i'm not saying one way or the other about this case, but take joe paterno.  That guy has done more humanitarian deeds in his life than i have had days. he was perhaps the most well-respected coach in america, and look at the dispicable manner in which he fucked it all up.

im not sayin kenny's wrong here, but 'just because he says so' is usually never a good enough reason. 

Seems like the FA are taking Evra's say so on the situation

I absolutely hate racism so the fact that the FA is doing something about it, like this verdict, should be welcome. But I feel the exact opposite: this hasn't improved anything, seeing as the FA seems to have created a vague clusterfuck. I still am not convinced that Suarez is guilty of racist behaviour. 

It's a kangaroo court until we get the report.  can't believe they announced this without the report being released.

The incredible strength of the club's reaction gives me great confidence that Luis does not deserve this. There is now way LFC would put at risk its history and reputation to protect a potentially racist player.

Well, if the FA are plotting something evil, I guess it would be something like this. Firstly, they found out that they are no proof to accuse Luis as a racist. So, to clear Evra's name and still make Luis the villain, they would accused Luis of being guilty, which they already had. Then the whole world will acknowledge him of being racist. Then the club, will obviously fight for justice. There is no proof, what do you expect? Then people will accused Liverpool of being supportive to racism. And even if we did win, it was already implanted into people's brain that Luis and Liverpool are evil. So in the end Liverpool and Luis becomes the villain, while Evra becomes the hero. Do you think they will go that far, or did I drink too much?lol...of course I'm not suggesting I'm supporting racism, just show me the proof and I'll accept it. If they aren't any, it's a lie. Simple as that.

I think they wanted to make a political statement on racism, regardless of the case.  

A foreign player, a non-London club that isn't friends with SAF, perfect target in every way.

Whatever happens on appeal, releasing this judgement without the full report is to sling mud and allow it to stick.

am i the only pool fan a little sad that the club used the "he has black friends" defense?

I would be disgusted if that were the entire defence laid out in the club statement, but it was more of a supporting point. The press is acting like it's the only reason given.

 And also, were he actually a racist, do you think he would have black friends? That one answers itself.

Same here.  They should really just stick to the case.  Let's not make this into a referendum on Luis' character - some think he's a inspirational leader, others are convinced he's a vulgar cheating scoundrel.  No amount of lauding his efforts against racism or bringing up his multicultural background will change their minds.  

But no matter, the fact is there's an accusation backed up by no evidence.  You just can't declare someone guilty based on that.  That's all there is to it.

Yes, that is a terrible argument.

Yeah, that part of it is more than a little cringe-worthy. I like that they rushed to his defense so vehemently, but it's hard not to shake your head at that.

An absolute joke. The FA take the word of a proven liar (his word only no proof whatsoever).

Proud of Liverpool's support and I want every fan who is going to Wigan tomorrow (wish I could) to sing Suarez's name the whole game.

The Ferguson Alliance has put back the fight against racism 20 years with this ruling. They and that lying scum Evra should hang their heads in shame.

I really think this case could change football in this country because Liverpool could and should take this outside the boundaries of football.

As has been mentioned previously what is to stop any player making an announcement that he has been racially abused just to set up an opponent? Lying has worked for Evra and others will now try it.

Should we be greatful that the FA have finally judged this case after spending a fortune exploiting a loophole in UEFA regulations to get a reduced ban for a thug like Rooney?

Is this the same FA who sells tickets to thousands of English fans who sing songs about the war, boo every other teams national anthem and have only recently stopped trashing every city they visit. Is this the same FA who proudly endorse John Terry as England captain?

Absolutely disgusted by the bias, lying and racism displayed by the FA and Evra.

Luis Suarez - Liverpool are behind you, the fans are behind you, and King Kenny is behind you.

YNWA Luis Suarez. 

I swear if Terry doesn't get at least double the punishment of Suarez.....

i totally agree with u
terry should get atleast double AND stripped of the england captaincy

neither suarez nor terry are actually racist. If they had done what they did to white guys nobody would be talking about it... if terry was racist you would see it in the way he treats his black teammates essien, drogba, anelka, malouda... same goes for suarez. Its very insulting to call a non racist person racist

This does not make sense at all. How can they accused Suarez of guilty with just Evra's words and no clear evidence? Well if this is the situation in court, the world will be fucked. People can accuse each other and everyone will be punished because apparently all accusation even without any clear evidence will be deemed guilty.

@rubberducky3201:disqus 
http://therepublikofmancunia.c... 

Wow! Too many mindless supporters there. Their supporters had no class whatsoever. How could they call Dalglish 'Dogleash'. That was IMO wayyy too disrespectful. Don't they realised that they are the ones being a cunt by calling people like that? Ah, I'm lucky I'm a Liverpool supporter.

Thank you good sir!

Yup, that'd be a typical one.  As I said, lively yes, but if you were looking for well thought-out opinions and intellectual discourse...

Yes, plenty of even-handed discussion going on over there.

Look at that! Somebody thinks they can post one sentence, copied and pasted from goal.com, and call themselves a blogger. You posted the FA's official statement, your own personal opinion, and even updated it with Liverpool's official response.

They probably don't drink. 

Exactly--I got drunk during lunch at work, started writing something else, was about to press "Publish", saw Twitter burning to the ground, and posted 12 sentences.

Nobody has integrity anymore.

If I was drunk and saw Twitter burning to the ground, I might, I don't know, play violin or something.

He wanted a manure blog. They dont have "even-handed" blogs really.

Forgive me for expecting anymore than the highest quality from Manure supporters. It won't happen again. 

Does anybody have any good suggestions of Manchester United blogs? Surely there's a few out there that have expressed their opinions on the issue, and I'm curious to see what they have to say. 

Well, I would guess that they would say Suarez is a cunt, a racist bastard, a shame, deserved the ban etc2. Hell, I would even bet for it.

Fastrail, you psychic, you. 

Hah! I should have bet for that one! Now for tomorrow's game....

Good blogs you mean?  With knowledgeable supporters?

Hmm...

 Ya, exactly. I'm finding them hard to find. It's quite odd to me that there isn't a popular blog here on the Offside for them. You would think that if the Offside could have an Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool blog be as lively as they are, that surely a Manchester United blog would be just as big. But, no.

I've seen a number of Utd blogs, and some very lively ones too.  But as to the quality of conversations there.  Questionable.  

Of course we have to admit there's our fair share of drunken illiterate Liverpool fans too trolling the internet.  But as to a Utd blog with a level of exchange even remotely close to this one?  Haven't seen one...

Just how can one person's statement prove beyond reasonable doubt that another person has spouted a 'racist comment' or is 'racist'? Stumped.

I don't know that the "beyond reasonable doubt" standard applies under the FA's rules. It could very well be "preponderance of the evidence" (the normal standard in civil, rather than criminal cases). It should be clear from the "written reasons" the FA intends to publish "in due course," but if someone does know, by all means enlighten us.

I think the FA apply a sliding scale according to the seriousness of the charge/allegation. 

Presumably, they see this as a serious matter....therefore they would apply "beyond reasonable doubt" as their  measure...

That's a dangerous precedent to set.  So, if someone were to accuse Suarez again of racism (and again not have any proof to back it up), the "preponderance of the evidence" principle would find Suarez guilty again because he's now a convicted racist and more likely than not he was being racist again?

Slippery slope that could have the courts flooded with opportunistic accusers.  

I agree that it's a dangerous precedent, but under a "preponderance" standard, you still have to say the evidence "more likely than not" points to conclusion X. Imagine it as needing 51% - which, I agree, is too low a threshold upon which to base 8 game bans. It wouldn't necessarily take into account past accusations (as opposed to convictions). The FA handbook 
http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/~/m... should have relevant info in it, but I'm still stuck at work and can't bill hours for reading it. Will peruse later tonight b/c now I'm curious. I'm also not that familiar w/ English legal procedure, but it's often similar to US. When liverpool appeal, the outcome will hinge on whether the standard is "abuse of discretion" or "de novo" (the latter gives the appellate court much more room to simply overrule the panel's finding, as opposed to the former). Sorry for droning on. 

As many have pointed out, John Terry better get banned far longer.

I'd be interested to see what letter of the law they're applying here.

It also depends on what Liverpool's official stance is, since unfortunately that has been wavering somewhat.  On the one hand, if the argument is that Suarez didn't say anything, which is suggested in the wording of the statement, then 'preponderance' should find in favor of Suarez given that the probability is extremely low that something was done in a crowded penalty box in a high-profile game and not a single person from either side saw or heard it and no camera or microphone caught it.  

On the other hand, if they concede that Suarez did say something, then the question is whether it was said in malice or with racist intent.  This is a much harder decision, and if it's three British officials deciding based on what they know of British culture, then perhaps I could see a guilty verdict simply out of ignorance and refusal to listen to any other South American's views on the matter.  Not that it's right, but at least I could see logical (albeit both stubborn and lazy) people coming to that conclusion.   

Whatever the charge levied on Suarez, you could say that exact same charge should also be applied to Evra for his "Don't touch me you South American" or "Sudaca" remark.  It'd be ludicrous if one gets charged and not the other simply because one cried bloody murder and the other just chose to be mature about it.

the FA rules appear to outlaw any mention of colour or ethnicity, hence the threshold for guilt is very low indeed.
But the reality has no consistency as you point out, or evidence as Noel's article points out.

Looking forward to reading the full FA report and seeing exactly what was said by who and why the FA have decided to take this action, until then [which could potentially be another 66 days :)] Suarez is still innocent until his appeal has gone through in my book.

The FA and media hype surrounding the case as well as particularly bad and tasteless remarks by a certain bald, fat FIFA bureaucrat has left Suarez open to an easy and equally tasteless charge by an organisation looking to make a point but that frankly can't tell the difference from it's arse to it's elbow.

I can't help but wonder why Mr Terry's case has quietly been dusted under the carpet by the English FA.

I'd be surprised on appeal if Suarez gets little more than a "mind your P's and Q's in the future" in which case he should go after the FA and Evra for slander and defamation of character. Bearing in mind Suarez is supposed to have said this word 10 times according to Evra!

That being said if the report shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Evra was racially abused then i'm just disgusted with our wee man!

Wow.  Up to now, I had written all this craziness off to the ineptitude of the FA, but that's clearly no longer an option.  The only possible way I could see this decision being justified is if the FA can produce additional and as yet unrevealed evidence, which they of course will not.

I hate to speak with such partisanship over such a sensitive issue, as I certainly wish Luis had not invoked race at all, whatsoever, but this certainly suggests that the FA has motivations other than responding to the actual events that this whole charade is supposedly about.  And that is a deeply disturbing thing to consider.

Fuck me, I need a drink.

Not too concerned about the lengthy match ban at the moment, bothered more by the potential stigma that a "convicted racist" tag will do to Suarez. Looking at how the opposing media have set out their campaign to milk the most of the little things Suarez has done, its unfathomable what more they will do to drive him out of the country. 

FA releasing verdict without accompanied evidences is yet another act which leaves things open to imagination, where is the clarity? They're passing a verdict based on information that was basically available to every single person who has access to the internet. Where is the bloody evidence?

Some statement from LFC and it seems like this is not the end, but just the beginning of things to come. I can hardly fault the 'them against us' mentality the way things have been drawn out for so long.

Wow Ed The straw that broke the camel,s back and life in England and all that. Thought I had strayed over to the Mirror for a sec there :(

Not necessarily my own view, but judging by the Twitter panic, it's something that's of concern for people. Which is sort of what I said.

Although now after reading it from somewhere else and posting it here and responding to your comment, I find myself worried about it, and want to punch myself in the face.

Interesting Statement from LFC.  

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news...

Very aggressive towards Evra and the FA, and it almost sounds like an opening statement for a court case.  It seems likely that we'll appeal the ban. 

Also, John Terry better get a 15 match ban, as there's evidence that he ACTUALLY said it and there is no cultural differences.  I'm pretty sure that Suarez did say what he allegedly said, but having no evidence other than Evra's word makes it very difficult to give someone such a large punishment.

Liverpool fc better take these clowns to court!!! F####n corrupt fa,
and who is the man at the fa connected with fergie? and as for terry he has been caught red handed but yet the corrupt f....kers at the fa didn't bring him to book!

all suarez did was apparently call evra el negrito and if that is what he did say he only spoke truly, so if this charge applies then evra must also be guilty by saying"get your hands off me south American"

Yep, certainly sounds like the gloves are off on this one.  

Not that I think two wrongs will make a right - if Evra gets charged too that does nothing to help Suarez.  But if it's shown that someone can be found guilty of anything based on zero evidence, well that kinda opens the floodgates...

What next?  Opposing fans visiting OT randomly accusing the Utd team of verbal abuse that no one else heard?  Every player in the squad facing ten separate charges each that they have to prove themselves innocent of?  I know the FA want to set a hard precedent, but I think they're inadvertently setting another very unwanted precedent that'll open up a huge can of worms.

fashinu brings his shirt out  and says what he done for racism on the same day suarez gets found guilty good timing by fa have they got shares.i think its a joke dont think he racist but i do think these idiots just put the fight againt racism back not helped it.i hope suarez goes for claim against evra and the fa for ruining his name

I have nothing to say that isn't vindictive and terrible, particularly if Evra did indeed make the "South American" comment. I need a fucking drink.

So appeals it is then.  The circus continues...

We're not even talking about mediating factors here.  It's just a ridiculous situation where "Porque, negra" is deemed aggressive and referring to ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race, while "Don't touch me, you South American" isn't??I think it'll drag out till Feb, when the punishment will be reduced to a 3-match ban starting with the return tie at OT.

If I was a South American ("oh here we go again..."), and a black man criticized me for being South American, I would've responded the exact same way that Suarez did, as if to brush the whole thing off as a non-existent issue, "I'm South American, You're African, and the referee is English, who cares?"

Years ago, I was working behind a counter, and a regular customer, a rather large regular customer, commented that I was looking skinnier that usual. I might be all skin and bones, but I still find it entirely insulting to be nit-picking at the appearance of an employee. So I responded, "well geez, you're looking fatter than usual yourself!" So then Patrice Evra-IMEAN the fat lady told my manager, and shortly after I was unemployed.

I guess the moral of the story is that The FA operates on the same principles as Radioshack.

this is my favorite story this week. Even tops that Nativity/Christmas thing.