Exactly. England would have gone out of the world cup regardless of that incident, so we can't blame the bite for our exit. We went out because we couldn't contain a 75% fit world class striker, and he punished us for it. It's not like the FIFA disciplinary panel is made up entirely of England or Italy fans, is it? FIFA could have given him a 14 match international ban and been done with it. Their punishment would have been in line with those meted out by the English and Dutch FA's, nothing more would have been said. The fact that FIFA have decided to go further is their own prerogative, presumably because they agree (for once) with the overwhelmingly dominant view that biting someone on a football field is despicable and after doing it thrice a significant punishment is clearly required. I don't think the fuss about this belittles other acts, it just shows that doing it three times is clearly ridiculous. His first ban was 7 matches, which is about in line with the 8 game ban FIFA gave Tassotti for breaking someone's nose with an elbow. Both were off the ball actions that required a certain amount of premeditation, obviously the elbow is worse though. His second was 12(?), about the same as Barton got for the brawl at Man City, as both took into account previous offences. Apparently in Vietnam a player got a 28 match ban for a vicious leg breaking challenge, which somewhat puts it in perspective.
I think some of you need to get a grip! This is a diabolical foul and not even deemed to be a free kick in fact the ref gave a goal kick! [video]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tGq7VcaHoqo[/video]
And I think you need to bugger off and stop trying to derail this thread, that will only ever end in a ban. FFS let it go!
So because a ref made a mistake 32 years ago we shouldn't penalise anything that isn't as bad as that? Mistakes happen, and they aren't always corrected. Nowadays retrospective punishment is a much greater part of the game, which is a positive step. Is officiating not allowed to move on from mistakes in the past? Football used to be played without a ref, so should we ignore that particular development in the game too?
Yes that's bad too and there's a lot of other bad examples out there, but nowadays you can't get away that in the modern age football. I think if anyone who needs to get a grip, it is you.
Look1 An elbow in the face may be accidental or it may be deliberate, same goes for a bad tackle, even a leg-breaking one could be down to poor timing. When you show me how you can accidently bite someone, on 3 seperate occasions, then I will listen to your comparisons!
This is what Suarez is saying "I lost my balance, making my body unstable & fell on top of my opponent. I hit my face against the player." Sounds as delusional as our local troll JWM is lol. Anyway, looking forward to the Brazil game on later.
At first, I didn't think Webb had got it right when he ruled out Hulk's goal, but having just seen it from a different angle, it was a good call.
Commiserations and equal congrats to Chile, for their magnificent part in the tournament to date Old cliché, but shame somebody has to be eliminated tonight.
