by Chris Tobin

When I first heard the verdict from the FA on the Luis Suarez biting incident I must admit I was incandescent with rage. A 10 game suspension for biting Branislav Ivanovic particularly when the offence of violent conduct is a three match ban, so not double or treble the punishment, seemingly one of the most despicable acts ever – according to the FA’s punishment.

Many have compared other notable episodes of wrong doing on the football field & rightly they have concluded that Suarez has indeed in comparison, been treated harshly. Suarez himself would only receive a ban of 8 games when found guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra – By defining “biting” a far worse act than racism surely the powers and suits at the FA have only compounded the perception the public has of this outdated & out of touch archaic institution.

Once again this organisation has sanctimoniously stumbled as if inebriated on its own inconsistency, whilst seemingly unable to preside upon its own rules and regulations. How even before Suarez has had the opportunity to belatedly offer some presumably lost in translation excuse for his behaviour, before he had thrown himself at the mercy of his accuses – The verdict was out. Interestingly Suarez behaviour would be likened to a small child in a playground – The FA however has mirrored such behaviour. It’s my rules, my game & my ball.

So my rage is with The Football Association and their ineptitude – Their attempts to contemporize football without the changing, can only be interpreted as complete failure. A modification of white men in grey suits, now morphed into snowy silvery men in taupe suits.
Luis Suarez is 26 years old, having joined Liverpool in January 2011 at a time when he was serving a similar ban for the crime of – Biting an opponent and since that time Suarez has never been red carded, however, he has already been banned for 11 games in that small space of time. If this current ban is upheld this will mean 21 games that Suarez will have missed through bans. Totally unacceptable Luis.

The question of whether this current sanction upon Suarez is right or wrong kind of pales into insignificance when you look at his overall disciplinary record. Some of the quite obvious anger we have for The FA should also be directed at; not just Suarez but the club itself. Liverpool have had ample opportunity to “Deal” with Suarez, instead seemingly waiting until the horse had well and truly bolted before any attempt to contain was made.

Support Suarez as much as you want & I have. What we cannot persist in doing in the face of such obvious facts – Is defend the indefensible. Petulance can’t continue to be ignored a quarrelsome tantrum throwing grown man cannot be excused any longer. Luis Suarez has let himself down, but more so he has continued to let both teammates and fans down, for me this is that line in the sand.

We seem to find ourselves with only two emotions as regard Luis Suarez – Love, or mostly; rage. We love Suarez but rage against almost everyone who dares to criticise our number 7 – Referees, Man United fans, TV pundits, fellow managers, Evra, Ivanovic, little old ladies, it goes on and on as unrelenting our anger spills over. At the centre of this foreign universe full of our indignation lies the enigma that would be Luis Suarez.

In respect the biting incident has only added to some of the unsightly aspects of the genius footballers behavioural misdemeanours. Our own footballing bias having seen us constantly having to support issues that if others were guilty of committing we would jump up and down demanding footballing justice, imprisonment & death.

I feel rather saddened the way Liverpool supporters have found themselves acting lately, as belligerently we shout and scream with anger toward those we would have happily laughed with and toward. A humour lobotomy seems to have taken place as we constantly find ourselves on the back foot with a perverse protectionism having replaced our honourable socialisms.

The rage that the image of Evra biting a dismembered arm received was as good an example as I can find – We laughed at Robbie Fowler sniffing the white line, the Suarez dive at the feet of Moyes. Have we really lost our perspective our humour and replaced it with moral outrage.

It started with Rafa Benitez and now misguidedly replicated with Suarez in as opposing scenarios as are possible. Where Benitez would fight Allardyce & Ferguson alongside the yanks and of course The Football Association – Suarez is fighting with himself against self-persecution and a perceived prejudice. He finds himself aided by fans also intent on disingenuously supporting his corner.

I genuinely hope the 10 game ban is reduced to what should be a fairer more inline punishment for such a stupidly comical crime, but I also hope to see Luis stop throwing his arms in the air after every occasion he finds himself challenged or when losing control of the ball. We all have to open our eyes to what we truly want from our heroes, what our expectations are, our honest assessment of footballers must return to Anfield & The Kop starting with our own men in red and one in particular in the number 7 shirt.

After all We Are Liverpool.

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