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Suarez to appeal FA verdict, receives massive support

Comment: 0 December 22nd, 2011 by: admin

LIVERPOOL striker Luis Suarez will appeal against the 8-match ban and £40,000 fine the FA handed him for allegedly making racist remarks against accuser Patrice Evra of Manchester United.

According to the striker’s legal counsel, the appeal will be filed by Liverpool’s lawyers, in an effort to reverse the charges that some have deemed either excessive, or inaccurate due to an unreliable investigation.

‘The appeal is total, over and above there being a monetary aspect and another with a match suspension,’ said Suarez’s legal representative, Uruguayan Alejandro Balbi.

‘[Suarez] is firmly convinced that this hard sanction can be reversed.’

Balbi continued, confirming that Suarez maintains his innocence despite Evra’s allegations, and that the sanction does not fit the deed.

‘It’s one of the hardest sanctions handed down in English football, so it seems to us absolutely out of proportion,’ said Balbi.

Since the FA handed the striker the sanction for allegedly throwing racial verbal insults at Evra, who insisted it happened about ten times, support from other Uruguayan players have begun pouring in for Suarez.

One supporter is Gus Poyet, former Uruguayan international player and current manager of Brighton & Hove Albion.

Poyet, who declared Evra as ‘no saint’, said he intends to stand by Suarez’s side ‘to the death.’  He also explained that in Uruguay, people were called ‘blacks’ in an affectionate nature.

‘Things have happened before with Evra,’ Poyet said.  ‘He is not a saint.  He is a controversial player.

‘I don’t know in which world we are going to live from now on,’ he continued.  ‘People will accuse each other of anything.’

Poyet went on to explain that Uruguayans have for years been living with coloured individuals, and that nothing but respect and affection have over the years grown between the two cultures.

Diego Lugano, Uruguay team captain and Paris Saint Germain defender, insisted that the FA were ‘making a big mistake.’

‘It’s obvious that in England there’s a racism problem they’re trying to eradicate, and that’s good, but this sentence has no solid arguments,’ he pointed out.

‘Luis is a victim.  I can’t understand how a player like Evra can do this.  He’s breaking all the codes of football. We all know what kind of person Luis is and the values he has.’

Lazio’s Alvaro Gomez, who with Suarez won the recent Copa America, said that Luis had not meant any insult in his statements.

‘We Uruguayans, and more so in football, use terms that can be wrongly interpreted by people from other places…it’s not a reason to call a Uruguayan a racist.

‘Maybe we end up paying for entering other, perhaps more closed, cultures, and which surely have discriminated against Evra at some moment for him to feel attacked in this situation.’

Other comments from fellow Uruguayans within the sport also deemed the punishment as ridiculous and excessive.

Fellow Liverpool players also showed their support by wearing specially-made T-shirts with Suarez’s photo, name and number.

‘Luis is our team-mate and friend and as a group of players we are shocked and angered that he has been found guilty by the FA,’ stated the other players before the kick-off at Wigan last Wednesday.

‘We totally support Luis and we want the world to know that.  We know he is not a racist.

‘We are a squad of many different nationalities and background,’ the statement continued.  ‘All of us support the club’s commitment to fighting racism.’

Reds manager Kenny Dalglish also reinstated his support for Suarez after the match, which ended 0-0.

‘We stand right beside him, we always have done and we always will do.’

Although touching, it is expected that this kind of support would come from these particular people – Suarez’s teammates, and other Uruguayan players.  However there is hope that this call be taken seriously by the FA, and again re-examine the matter before endangering a star’s budding career.

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