Liverpool Will Not Appeal Luis Suarez Suspension, Which Begins Tuesday Night

For more, check in with our two Liverpool blogs, Anfield Asylum and The Offside Liverpool.

Here is an excerpt from that statement:

The statement can be found in full at the official website of Liverpool FC.

For more, check in with our two Liverpool blogs, Anfield Asylum and The Offside Liverpool.

There is an interesting parallel with the report into the allegations against Luis Suárez. I’ve written about the allegations and the outcome before, both here and elsewhere, and been keen to stress everywhere that the FA weren’t looking at Suárez’s character: that they wouldn’t be making any pronouncement on whether or not he was “a racist”, merely on whether or not he’d done a racist thing. Yet the panel, while they didn’t explicitly prove me wrong, did their damndest in their concluding paragraph:

So there you have it. He isn’t that sort of player.

This post contains accounts of events that include strong language and a racial slur.

This is the FA’s, which substantially draws on testimony by Evra:

Suarez can only appeal against the magnitude of the sentence rather than the independent tribunal’s findings, meaning that even if said appeal was successful it would just mean a reduction in the length of the ban. Furthermore, if the FA finds the appeal to be ‘trivial’ they have the option of increasing the sentence beyond the original eight games, which could potentially see Suarez ruled out for most of the rest of the Premier League season.

It’s unlikely that the appeal will be lodged until the fourteen days Liverpool are permitted to consider it have elapsed, as waiting will allow Suarez to feature against Manchester City, a match that they desperately need him available for, but once we get to mid-January, get ready to go through this whole circus again.

Does this mean that Suarez is guilty of racist abuse? On the one, and probably more important hand, yes. The FA believes he’s guilty, and as far and Liverpool and Suarez is concerned they’re the ones who actually matter what with the ability to ban the Uruguayan for a shocking number of games and fine him an amount of money that would be considered obscene in almost any other profession.

On the other hand, which could be considered even more important if you’re feeling philosophical ... no. No it doesn’t. It just means that the FA has decided to declare Suarez guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra, which is manifestly not the same thing. As of yet, the public have been presented with no compelling evidence that this is an accurate reflection on the true state of affairs, and so we’re left trusting the FA to have gotten things right.

It is rare for a football club’s statement to cause a stir. Such is the platitudinous banality of these releases that it is uncommon for them to inspire any sort of sensation. When the banal platitudes are replaced by ill-thought nonsense coagulated into a barely coherent defence of a newly banned player, however, a club statement becomes instantly notorious. That is what has happened to this bizarre publication, issued by Liverpool FC in response to Luis Suarez being found guilty of racially abusing Manchester United’s Patrice Evra.

Leaving aside the very interesting question of who wrote this piece (evocative as it is of the work of Ricky Gervais, Ron Atkinson and Surreal Football) and how they arrived at such a startlingly ignorant and infantile world view in favour of some housekeeping, it is necessary first to point out that Suarez has not been convicted of being a racist (that would be impossible, I may be a horrible racist - I’m not - but as long as I keep schtum about it you’ll never know) but of racially abusing someone. These are linked, but not identical. If this seems like an obvious clarification then I apologise, but it seems in the light of the storm that has already gathered around the club’s release to be a necessary one. Still in the housekeeping spirit, I should make it clear that I am not ‘anti-Liverpool’ (such a designation, as the below will hopefully explain, is senseless in any case): see this as evidence.

It’s all pretty embarrassing and reads sort of like it was drafted by a rabid fan rather than a lawyer or a public relations guru. Did they fire their media folks, or did they all quit in despair? I mean, this is not the way to soften things up in preparation for an important appeal:

Here are the salient points the statement addresses:

The FA’s report makes it clear that there was a racist element to the insulting language Suarez employed:

Further findings, including ‘the findings of fact made by [the report], the reasons for its decision finding the charge proved and the reasons for the penalty’ will be provided by the Independent Regulatory Commission in due course.

The Guardian is claiming that “[Suarez’s] defence is understood to focus on the nuances of the Spanish language and cultural differences, arguing that what he said would not be considered offensive for someone of his background in South America,” and with that in mind this hearing is likely to take a while as the FA explores the fun and not-slippery-at-all ground of culturally acceptable racist abuse. While it’s understood at Suarez faces a lengthy ban if found guilty, it’s difficult how anything short of him hoisting himself by his own petard will see the Uruguayan convicted.

When I started writing about football, almost a year-and-a-half ago now, I thought to myself: “Yes, I really like football. And yes, I really like writing. But what I like most of all is writing about utterly depressing sagas that turn all football fan within a thousand miles into bile-spewing morons”.

First of all, the necessary, even though it shouldn’t be: that’s charged, not convicted, and while the FA isn’t a court of law the parallels are probably workable. We now know that they think Suárez has a case to answer for “abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour” that “included a reference to the ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race of Patrice Evra”, and while it’s probably possible to infer from Suárez’s public statements both his position, and the FA’s position on his position, let’s leave that for now. He remains innocent. We all happy with that?

It’s important to remember that there’s still a huge element of uncertainty in this case - the FA’s language makes it clear that Suarez has not been found guilty (or innocent) as of right now. The investigation is still ongoing and nobody (except Suarez, obviously) can be sure what actually happened between the Liverpool striker and Evra.

I think that everyone would like to believe that said abuse is a figment of Evra’s imagination, but with the matter already going to the FA and Evra claiming that he was referred to as ‘a certain word’ ten times or more, things are obviously starting to spiral out of control. The investigation will determine whether the allegations are true or not, at any rate.

*This particular idiom has never made much sense to me.

You’re not going to make a huge deal out of it, eh Patrice? Too little too late - although if Suarez was actually engaging in blatant racism during Saturday’s match, it probably is worthy of a big deal. As Evra says, we’re supposed to be living in a modern world now and there’s simply no room in that world for racist abuse. Suarez is now under investigation by the FA after Marriner made note of Evra’s protest in his report.

At statement released by English football’s governing body confirmed that they’re investigating ‘an allegation’ following the match:

The FA will now begin making enquiries into the matter.If the allegations are true, one would hope Suarez is presented with a hefty ban. English football, by and large, has done an excellent job kicking racism out of the game, and they’ll need to set a strong example if Suarez is indeed guilty of hurling racist slurs against Evra.