It's true with Rugby League as well, or AFL (Australian Rules Football). You'd get at least 6 months for a first offence. Bite someone 3 times, and a player would almost certainly get a life ban. I reckon the creep got off extremely lightly considering his track record - FIFA are actually far too lenient imo. I can't fathom those people defending him, especially the Uruguayans - they should be embarrassed to have a nutjob like him representing their country.
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FIFA World Cup 2014
- Thread starter GrumpiusMaximus
- Start date
It's true with Rugby League as well, or AFL (Australian Rules Football). You'd get at least 6 months for a first offence. Bite someone 3 times, and a player would almost certainly get a life ban. I reckon the creep got off extremely lightly considering his track record - FIFA are actually far too lenient imo. I can't fathom those people defending him, especially the Uruguayans - they should be embarrassed to have a nutjob like him representing their country.
True, RU, RL and AFL seem to share similar concepts of respecting the sport.
It's the god-status that some football players develop, apparently makes them bigger than the sport.
Just another example of the difference:
Team captain was warned about mouthing off, shortly afterwards he refers to the referee "a f**king cheat", the referee hears this and red cards him.
It was a Premiership final.
He was banned for 11 weeks.
He missed the Lions tour (select team of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh players that plays every 4 years).
He didn't even appeal the suspension.
I'm not a big fan go Barnes (ref) or Hartley (player), but heck, even I thought it was a bit harsh.
Team captain was warned about mouthing off, shortly afterwards he refers to the referee "a f**king cheat", the referee hears this and red cards him.
It was a Premiership final.
He was banned for 11 weeks.
He missed the Lions tour (select team of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh players that plays every 4 years).
He didn't even appeal the suspension.
I'm not a big fan go Barnes (ref) or Hartley (player), but heck, even I thought it was a bit harsh.
Also, well done Colombia! Even without Suarez I thought we'd see Uruguay going into the QF.
Brazil are going to be strong favourites, but they weren't playing that amazingly, I think it could be closer than we might expect! It's a shame it wasn't a Chile-Colombia QF though!
Brazil are going to be strong favourites, but they weren't playing that amazingly, I think it could be closer than we might expect! It's a shame it wasn't a Chile-Colombia QF though!
Absolutely great game for Colombia. Superior in every aspect of the game. They won it fair and square and my hat is off to Colombians and their team. Took a long time for them to be back at a World Cup, and they deserved this all along.
One of the biggest problems with the ridiculous defending and justification/excusing of Suarez behaviour by the Uruguayan management, FA, media and people is that it will no doubt stop him getting the treatment he so very obviously needs.
I honestly think that FIFA should have insisted on him receiving treatment as part of his ban.
Instead of all this palpable nonsense, the manager and FA should have said;
Suarez has a problem which has caused him to do this again - we will fully support our player in seeking and recieving the help he needs to overcome this and show what a great player he can be.
I honestly think that FIFA should have insisted on him receiving treatment as part of his ban.
Instead of all this palpable nonsense, the manager and FA should have said;
Suarez has a problem which has caused him to do this again - we will fully support our player in seeking and recieving the help he needs to overcome this and show what a great player he can be.
That's one of the things I harp on about in the English Football Thread, this marketing tactic of making the matches more about the personalities involved than about the teams involved. It's a tactic that works because it brings in the casual fan and the people who aren't even interested in the sport.
Rather than Real Madrid v Barcelona it's Jose Mourinho and Cristiano against Messi and Pep Guardiola, that kind of thing.
Yep. Dissent. It's a yellow card, at least, so we can't complain about the rules. It's that the rules are not enforced. And yet, if they were enforced, it would stop the behavior and the refs wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.
I thought the best public comments regarding Suarez came from Ronaldo (the real one, not Cristiano). He basically said, "You commit something like this, you must be held accountable for your actions and be punished. Otherwise, what kind of example does it set for the children?" Think about the children in Montevideo who see their player bite someone and then come home to a hero's welcome.
And it's a marketing ploy enforced by FIFA. Hell, I remember a fuss being kicked up when they first started considering goal-line technology, one of the comments made by Blatter himself was that it would remove "the human element" of football, that the 'controversial' decisions were one of the things that made football great.
Now to some extent that may be true and yes, sometimes referees will make poor calls or miss something - but surely the contest is between the teams on the field, why would you want to keep refereeing mistake - large ones which have a major effect on the game - and call it a good thing?!
That and those calling for him to get some counselling/help for his anger issues.
I had that discussion with a friend and I basically said I was for the goal-line technology because the controversial calls always seem to favor the establishment teams, so this and other types of technology can help to end that type of corruption.
His angle was that one of the beautiful things about the game is that it's played the same way at every level. An amateur playing at the park plays with the same rules, the same ball, same goal dimensions, one referee, two linesmen, etc... as the professional playing in a large stadium. Adding things to the professional game that won't exist in the amateur game will take away a part of that charm.
I can understand his perspective because, as an American I see how technology can affect the sport in a negative way. We don't want football to end up with a cheesy siren that goes off when the ball crosses the goal line.
Yes and I'll add one more. I would have liked for someone to call for him being prosecuted by the law. Biting someone is not the same as a slide tackle gone wrong. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the game. If Suarez bit someone out on the street he would be arrested and no one would claim he didn't deserve it, but because he does it during a match it's considered okay to leave his punishment up to FIFA.
There was a case in hockey many years ago where one player attacked another in such a way that they actually brought the police into it and charged him with assault, I think, and I would like to see more of that. Being in a stadium shouldn't give you license to do things you wouldn't do on the street.
I could see some of the reasons they were against it, cost and lack of implementation at lower levels for instance.
And sure, people could get carried away with it, but it doesn't have to be a slippery slope type incident.
But when you take the biggest tournament in the world and things like this can happen:
I think there's something seriously wrong with the system in place, especially when it's a costly fault like that.
I do prefer the TV official approach as it allows a more detailed analysis when not real-time (though they said this would slow the game down, but given the time footballers waste celebrating, any required checking on by the official could easily be done before they finish celebrating!).
And sure, people could get carried away with it, but it doesn't have to be a slippery slope type incident.
But when you take the biggest tournament in the world and things like this can happen:
I think there's something seriously wrong with the system in place, especially when it's a costly fault like that.
I do prefer the TV official approach as it allows a more detailed analysis when not real-time (though they said this would slow the game down, but given the time footballers waste celebrating, any required checking on by the official could easily be done before they finish celebrating!).
True that, I know a few years back there was a particularly nasty eye-gouging incident during a welsh league rugby match which was referred to both the citing panel and the police.
Though would it be up to the Italian player to press charges? I'm not sure how it would work on that stage.
I suppose the laws are different in each country. Here, there are civil cases and criminal cases. For the criminal case, with video evidence and all the eye witnesses, it wouldn't matter if the Italian pressed charges or not.
Apologies for the derail - just posting this here to share some joyousness. I actually remember a couple of these goals from back when they were scored.
Wow! I loved watching that. The players are all so ugly. The fields are so ugly! The first row so close to the touchline. The players so skillful and unathletic. And the commentary... Thanks for that.
There's something to be said for it though, the messier pitches allowed for the games to have more changes in dynamic.
I always wonder, in modern professional sports, with everyone being so physically fit and trained to such a high degree, the games just become choked up. There seems to be less room for that dynamic flare.
I always wonder, in modern professional sports, with everyone being so physically fit and trained to such a high degree, the games just become choked up. There seems to be less room for that dynamic flare.
Ay. It were proper football back in them days.
Reminds me of the James Bolam monologue in "Eleven men versus eleven"...
