Luis Suarez was handed an eight-game ban by the Football Association yesterday. The somewhat severe ruling was dished out following an FA investigation into claims made by Luis Suarez toward Patrice Evra during the Manchester United game in October which ended in a 1-1 stalemate.
I have to say, I’m completely surprised by the severity of this. Partly because this word seems to be some kind of closely guarded secret from what I can gather because it doesn’t appear to have been officially released. Personally I think this is a bit of an insult to the intelligence of most who follow the game, and smacks of some kind of under-hand process here. Why hasn’t the FA given full details of this? Certainly now a decision has been made. I doubt it was any worse than the ‘N’ word which seems to be banded about quite freely by almost all races in the name of popular ‘Rap’ music and certains strands of recent ‘culture’.
Apparently this is a word that Evra’s team mates say to him all of the time. A word which can be friendly or offensive… In English or Spanish… Er… OK. What I also find strange is that such a severe punishment can be handed out for something that there seems to be no whitness to. Yes there were cameras that recorded the incident, but is that it? Could not one of Evra’s team mates add some weight to his claim? They’ve all been suspiciously quiet as far as what I’ve heard.
Ultimately, Suarez has been “made an example of”. He’s being made to carry the can for something that, let’s be brutally honest here, many a white Englishman has done before him and gone completely unpunished. This is nothing more than appeasement. Along the same lines of this ridiculous “Rooney Rule” that they want to bring in to supposedly help to bring more black managers into the game. Something I’m sure will happen as a matter of course anyway. Like black footballers. I don’t think many of the so-called initiatives to fight racism in football have helped to increase the amount of black players. This has happened over the course of cultural development. One question I have. Will the much-loved and amiable John Terry at Chelsea be given an eight-match ban? Perhaps it’s up to Anton Ferdinand to “bring charges”? Does this not lead the inevitable “race card” which I’m afraid does exist, probably more so than racism itself? Suarez must appeal this. It’s unlikely that the decision will be overturned or revised, but appeal he must do nonetheless if he feels he is innocent.
Racism should not be tolerated. I am one hundred percent certain that this type of thing does and will continue to go on. Most black players will ignore it because they know the best way to answer this type of thing is simply to play your game. As a black man, I’d say that these things are usualy said simply to wind someone up. If the perpetrator knows it would make no difference, he will not do it. Because it makes him look stupid. The majority of footballers and people are not racist.
On the football side, this leaves Liverpool in a very difficult position. With their most influential midfielder out for the remainder of the season, and Suarez missing for a large chunk of the run-in, this does make the aim of achieving fourth spot somewhat more difficult. It’s now time for the likes of Andy Carroll, Jay Spearing to prove their worth and be counted for the team. Let’s start tonight at 8pm at the JB Stadium.
By Ben Green
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