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Suarez’s fate to be determined within 24 hours

Comment: 0 December 7th, 2011 by: admin

LIVERPOOL striker Luis Suarez has landed his fate in the hands of the FA, who within 24 hours will decide whether they will slap him with a charge of misconduct.

The possible verdict stems from an incident Monday that involved Suarez being caught on camera giving the middle finger to the Fulham crowd at Craven Cottage.

According to reports, Suarez’s one-finger salute came after the Reds fell 1-0 to Fulham, with the crowd chanting and calling the striker ‘cheat’.

With the calls coming continuously, Suarez seemingly reached the end of his tolerance and made the gesture as he walked frustrated back to the dressing room right after game’s end.

If found guilty, Suarez could face a significant fine for his misconduct, or worse, be banned for at least two matches.  However the authorities are expected to let the striker give his side of the story.

In the meantime, Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish remains furious over the chants directed at Suarez during the match.

‘Scandalous,’ he told The Telegraph.  ‘I would like to see you write that in the paper because you would be in a bit of trouble as well.  You write what you want to write.’

Dalglish remained adamant and insisted that the club will work to defend Suarez, who according to him was in need of it.

‘At the end of the day, we will look after Luis the best we can and I think it is about time he got a wee bit of protection from some people.’

King Kenny continued to argue that the striker’s integrity was in no was questionable.

‘[Suarez] can look in the mirror and go to bed at night and sleep soundly,’ he insisted.  ‘If other people can do that, fine.  All we ask is to be fair, is to be honest.’

Protection for Suarez came however from Fulham left back John-Arne Riise.  A former Liverpool player, Riise insisted that despite the controversy, Suarez remains an impeccable player.

‘[Suarez] is a really good player,’ he said.  ‘He just has to play his game.  He is lively, it is hard to know where you have him because of his movement and because he always gets his body in the way.’

Riise added that Suarez’s skills requires that players constantly be alert and refrain from being too lenient with him on the field.

‘We have to get in hard on him and get on top of him, because if we try to be nice to him he will kill the game off, so you have to be tough,’ explained Riise.  ‘But when he gets frustrated – you could see that three or four times during the game – it goes away quickly, because he is a professional.’

Currently the situation involving Suarez’s gesture is being investigated by the Association’s disciplinary chiefs, who would determine whether the striker would claim his second charge from the FA in a matter of weeks.

The finger incident came fairly recently after Suarez was found in trouble with the Association for aiming racist slurs at Manchester United’s Patrice Evra last October.

Evra accused Suarez of throwing racist remarks at him ‘at least ten times’; according to reports, the Uruguayan is set to defend his actions as something that was interpreted merely with a confusion over the choice of words and the intentions behind them.

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