Suarez: ‘I lost my balance… ‘

As if his situation wasn’t bad enough, Luis Suarez’s ‘official’ explanation for what (he believes) really happened with Chiellini during the week has been released, in part.

His explanation begins, “In no way it happened how you have described, as a bite or intent to bite”. Which, as many at the time argued, was actually debatable as it seemed that from certain angles it was as much a headbutt as anything. However, having seen the incident from every conceivable angle, it’s clear what actually happened.

Which makes the words that followed mind-boggling: “After the impact … I lost my balance, making my body unstable and falling on top of my opponent.

“At that moment I hit my face against the player leaving a small bruise on my cheek and a strong pain in my teeth.”

Regardless of whether Suarez did initially fall, there is very clear video footage showing that his head moved toward the shoulder/Chiellini’s neck after the two had clashed, making Suarez’s claims to be the innocent part a little hard to swallow.

Sadly, much of Suarez’s protestations seem to be coming from some feelings of justification, after the support he’s received at home and from the Uruguayan FA and board. In many ways, it feels as if they’re acting as ‘enablers’ and allowing him to feel as if he’s done nothing wrong. It’s hard, as a Liverpool fan, not to feel infuriated by this, as it is simply un-doing all the hard work of Steve Peters, Brendan Rodgers and the club last season.

Oscar Tabarez, his national coach, has now resigned from his role in FIFA’s Technical Study Group in protest, claiming that Suarez is being made a”scapegoat”.

Quite what he’s been made a scapegoat for, other than his own indiscretions, is questionable though.

There’s not doubt that there was very much a sense of making an example of Suarez by FIFA, and the disproportionate nature of his ban seems quite unfair, considering the multiple incidents of violence and unsavory behaviour that we’ve already seen at the World Cup that was much worse than Suarez’s actions.

But, on the other hand, he is a multiple offender himself and his statement, while not able to make things worse in terms of his ban, does show that – once again – he refuses to accept any wrong-doing and is quite unrepentant and will no doubt make things much worse for him if he ever steps out of line again in the future.

From a Liverpool fan’s point-of-view, we can only hope he gets back to Liverpool asap, where he can once again begin the hard work that saw him become such a role model last season, as losing him would be detrimental to the club but having the old Suarez return could be even more damaging if he stays away any longer. With an eye on the future, maybe the break from international football for a year and his ‘enablers’ at the Uruguay FA will do him some good.