“We are extremely disappointed Luis Súarez did not shake hands with Patrice Evra before yesterday’s game,” read a statement from Liverpool FC in the wake of an astonishing clash with Manchester United.
So they should be disappointed, for Súarez has brought the game into disrepute and sullied the image of one of England’s most storied clubs.
The build-up to his snub needs little introduction.
The Uruguayan was handed an eight-game suspension and fined £40,000 for racially abusing United defender Patrice Evra when the two sides met at Anfield last October.
Despite protesting his innocence, a Football Association panel found Suarez directed the Spanish version of “negro” at Evra five times – something renowned South American football expert Tim Vickery argued wasn’t necessarily racist.
And it’s clear from Súarez’s behaviour on Saturday he felt no contrition for using those words, no matter how Evra felt about the matter.
Sir Alex Ferguson wasn’t far off the mark when he suggested the Uruguayan could have started a riot with his petulant refusal to shake Evra’s hand.
Amid the madness was a moment of almost surreal comedy when Súarez reacted in amazement at Rio Ferdinand’s subsequent refusal to shake the Liverpool striker’s hand.
It showed just how out of touch the Uruguayan has been with reality throughout the wretched affair.
And his club haven’t been much better, with Liverpool only now criticising the Uruguyan for “misleading” them about his intentions to make amends in Manchester.
Even that comes after Kenny Dalglish defended Súarez in his post-match interviews.
It also means little in comparison to Liverpool’s reprehensible behaviour against Wigan in December, when the entire squad warmed up in matching Súarez T-shirts – a gesture Dalglish described as a show of solidarity for their striker.
The carefully cultivated victim mentality is breathtaking.
No longer a big club in Premier League terms, it’s as though Liverpool will stop at nothing to try and snatch away whatever piece of the limelight they can get.
Watching Saturday’s clash with a colleague of mine, I suggested it was a shame the serious social issue of racism was being trivialised by the childish antics of a group of adults who should know better.
“It makes for great drama though,” he replied – an assessment impossible to disagree with.
Saturday’s Old Trafford slugfest was absorbing from start to finish.
Watching on TV it was clear the atmosphere in the stands was at boiling point, and not surprisingly United fans did nothing to defuse the situation, with all copies of the fanzine ‘Red Issue’ confiscated by police because it contained a mock Ku Klux Klan cut-out.
Evra and Rio Ferdinand soon clattered into each other after kick-off as both tried to poleaxe Súarez.
A Liverpudlian then took control of the game, but sadly for Liverpool fans he was wearing a United jersey, as Wayne Rooney proved for the umpteenth time how much of a one-man team United are.
If Rio Ferdinand was stoic before kick-off he was decidedly unheroic for the next 90 minutes, as the England defender endured another forgettable outing – capped off by the mistake which saw the hated Súarez get his goal.
Perhaps Ferdinand had his mind on other matters, with younger brother Anton still embroiled in a racism row of his own with ex-England captain John Terry.
There’s an interesting contrast in the coverage of both the Súarez affair and the Terry case, with the notoriously dogged English press less effusive in its condemnation of the former England skipper.
It’s tempting to suggest Súarez is caught up in his own race-related smear campaign – the victim of a xenophobic press gang hellbent on forcing an admission of guilt.
But whatever sympathy one might have had for the Uruguayan dissipated on Saturday.
Faced with the chance of redemption, Luis Súarez instead brought shame on himself and English football – all in front of a global audience of millions.
rrr
Guest
What Hippocratic is this guy. The one that brought SHAME to the English futbol is not Suarez, it is England own history of racism ans slavery, apologies to the 1000000's of English people who are really HONEST about all this FARCE. Look at the history of your beloved FA, if Suarez is a racist what will you say about Stanley Rous, just write it in all the papers, that is history, otherwise go and ask the South African people, they know who he was. It is obvious that this guy does not read the papers around the world, just take this case to the highest court in the EU, they will make a MOCKERY of the FA and all those who supported with this FARCE.
Robert Red
Guest
The English FA has orchestrated a smear campaign in the mould of a General Election or US Presidential Election! Creating as much negativity on a rival as possible to turn the public against Liverpool FC and Luis Suarez because how can they possibly be seen to be unimpeachably impartial when The CEO of Manchester United Football Club Mr David Gill is a board member of The English FA? Professional Football in England is a business, what Industry in the world would allow it's regulator to have a CEO of a company on it's board that it's supposed to regulate, when incidents occur that would in the long run give that CEO the chance to detrimentally and financially affect it's competitors? I could point at a host of actions by The English FA that can be construed as strategic moves possibly initiated by Mr David Gill that has created more negativity in the media whipping them up into a mass hysteria of negativity which then escalates to the public against Liverpool FC and Luis Suarez: The original Luis Suarez/Patrice Evra incident, who thought it a good idea without beyond reasonable doubt evidence to initiate an English FA investigation? Who appointed the three man disciplinary panel, when two of the members of that panel can be construed to have affectionate links towards Manchester United? Who appointed the linguistic experts from Manchester University the city of the football club whose players' allegations came from? Who appointed linguistic experts conversant in the Colombian form of Spanish when the accused is Uruguayan? Why was the Luis Suarez's legal team not advised originally that the Disciplinary Panel had sat down with Patrice Evra and documented in notes and watched the video of the football match and asked him to point out where the Luis Suarez had made derogatory comments towards him? Why was the Luis Suarez made to wait sometime after the Patrice Evra had, had their interview with The English FA and was then made to recollect the incidents from memory, when the Patrice Evra was allowed to watch the football match on video with The Disciplinary Panel and point out the incidents? Why did The English FA not send the video and notes of that interview with Patrice Evra, originally with the 115 page document of their findings to the Luis Suarez's legal team? Why did The English FA decide to find Luis Suarez guilty of misconduct and ban him for 1 game from an incident in the game v Norwich City in the height of all the Luis Suarez/Patrice Evra investigation, when previously in the past Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville of Manchester United FC the club Mr David Gill is The CEO of and Ashley Cole of Chelsea FC had done exactly the same thing as Luis Suarez with a finger/s gesture and were never punished? Why did The English FA advise Referee Phil Dowd in last weekends football match between Manchester United FC v Liverpool FC at Old Trafford to get the Liverpool FC players who were the away team to walk along the line and shake hands of the home team Manchester United FC, when it is normally the home team who walks along the line and shakes the hands of the away team? Why did The English FA try to make Liverpool FC's Luis Suarez offer to shake Manchester United FC's Patrice Evra's hand when they decided that in the recent QPR v Chelsea match (where John Terry is awaiting trial for an allegation of racial abuse towards Anton Ferdinand) there would be no handshakes before the start of the match? Getting Suarez to shake Evra's hand infront of the baying Manchester United crowd and millions on tv around the world was a psychological sign of guilt! why should Suarez be made to do this? Why has the original decision from The English FA not been called into question after the video of Patrice Evra surfaced right after The English FA had found Luis Suarez "probably guilty" of misconduct. In the video Patrice Evra clearly calls Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Frank Lampard "Mother Fucking Niggers" in a hotel in London on British soil - http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Video-Patrice-Evra-using-the-N-word-article849460.html Patrice Evra has clearly lied under oath in The FA Disciplinary Hearing because the video proves he is comfortable using the "N" word himself, yet he thinks a misinterpreted connotation is derogatory? There is a reason why Liverpool FC and Luis Suarez have never accepted guilt of the original accusations by Patrice Evra and it must now come down to The British Parliament to investigate The English FA's handling of the whole incident before it escalates to a tragedy where I believe people are going to get physically hurt.
Roger
Guest
Stop trying to play the "anti South American" victim card. Point is, no matter which way you try and sell it, there were racist remarks, that were made in an ENGLISH league by a player representing an ENGLISH club. If Suarez thinks that's unfair, he can always play in another country more to his liking. What may be ok in South America is not necessarily ok in ENGLAND. Lastly, two wrongs still don't make a right.
Pecs McGee
Guest
*Much more harshly than Terry
Pecs McGee
Guest
And that no one else bloody heard them. It was literally Evra's word against Suarez. Funny that Suarez has been treated much more harshly in the media. Must be easier to label a South American racist than to point the finger at an Englishman
Pecs McGee
Guest
Pretty sure that they spoke in Spanish...
Roger
Guest
Pretty sure that pitch was in England....
Steve McLennan.
Guest
It was a frickin handshake! Who cates? A riot? Ferguson's stupid, emotional comment will do more damage! Idiots. Let's get back to talking about the game. This mindless reporting is killing the game by turning people off. You people in the media are helping to kill the game! Stop it!
Axelv
Guest
Show me the money!
Colin N
Guest
"I know you can’t take it as face value, but were you in the meeting?" Sorry, that should say: "you don't have to take it at face value."
Photon
Guest
Suarez has never said that he is innocent, he admits that he repeatedly used the word Negro in reference to Evra and even went so far as to say he doesn't talk to Negroes? What he has said though is that in his country it is okay to call black people Negroes so what he did is not racist. My question to all the people defending him is this, if I come from a racist country where it is acceptable to call black people Nigg** and I come to Australia and I call the black people there Nigg**, does that mean that my comment is not racist because my country accepts racist behaviour? When I tell you that I don't speak to people with your skin colour that's racist.
Colin N
Guest
"Evra has a poor record, having been found guilty and banned previously for an incident with a groundsman at Chelsea!" And Suarez has been banned for biting someone. Also, remember Suarez's 'hand of god' in the World Cup quarters where he revelled in his cheating? "Everyone seemed to side with Evra for fear of being called racist if they didnt instead of simply looking at facts." Well, the only facts we have to go on are what the FA released in their report which was pretty damning. I know you can't take it as face value, but were you in the meeting? You are drawing your owns facts without knowing them yourself and instead condemning Evra for being called, in England, a racist term. Now, this is the bit I don't understand, the people condeming Evra saying he lied. The one thing in this case that is certain: Evra did not lie. The bloke was called, and this has been admitted by Suarez, 'negrito,' which is a racist term in this country, so Evra has every right to be offended. Whether the meaning was lost in translation is up to the FA decide, but in the heat of battle, it's hardly going to be a friendly conversation, is it? Now stop going on this crusade.
Pecs McGee
Guest
Why should Suarez be mindful of English sensibilities? It was said on the pitch (to a non-englishman) out of earshot of the media and fans... bloody Evra went and made it public like a little sook.
Stoffy18
Roar Guru
http://thetroublewithfootball.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/analysis-of-suarez-fa-via-crowdsourcing.html Please glance over this piece, food for thought.
Bondy
Guest
I have a solution to the whole issue both Suarez and Evra can both jump on the Steve Irwin (ship with that mad yank) and go and chase the Japanese in The Antarctic rescuing whales .
Roger
Guest
Racism has no place in today's society, and it is no defence that Evra is just as bad/worse. Remember, Suarez is not living in South America, he's living in England, and as such, he needs to be mindful of what he says and how it will be seen in the English context.
Roger
Guest
.
Australian Rules
Guest
What constantly surprises me about European football managers is the level of histrionics they engage in with the media. They act like petty, spoilt kids and encourage the same from their pampered young stars. I think Ferguson's comments are inciteful - he suggests "riot" for some shock value and exacerbates the issue with emotive words like "disgraceful" and refers to the history of Liverpool to somehow give it more gravity. I do not condone Suarez...he's clearly a git...but so is Fergie when it suits him. His hypocracy is staggering.
Roger
Guest
9 teams? What? I thought everyone had heard about how Western Sydney is going to re-invigorate the league....
Nathan of Perth
Guest
I don't watch much of the EPL but it seems every time I do watch it I somehow see Suarez being an absolute arse. As you say, talented footballer but I certainly shed no tears as this run of misfortune visits him.