What We're Reading
Report: FA Wants Seven or Eight-Game Ban for Suarez
- Independent, Tuesday, April 23, 2013 1:37 PM
An Independent Regulatory Commission will hear the Luis Suarez case on Wednesday, the English FA said. The governing body of English soccer could push for as much as a seven-game
ban for the Liverpool striker, the Independent reports, which is more than double the standard three-game ban handed to players found guilty of violent conduct.
The case here has
no precedent in England since changes to the FA’s rules allow for players to be punished retrospectively. This was not in place in October 2006 when Tottenham striker Jermaine
Defoe bit West Ham’s Javier Mascherano on the arm.
The report claims Suarez will either be handed a five-game ban—which includes the standard ban plus
a one or two-game “surcharge”—, or a seven or eight-game ban, given that the Dutch KVNB suspended Suarez for seven games for biting PSV Eindhoven’s Otman
Bakkal in 2010 when he was playing for Ajax.
Suarez on Tuesday tweeted that he had called Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic to apologize to him and that the
Serbian accepted the apology, but other reports claim the Blues defender did not accept and is still upset. However, he is not pressing charges.
