The Uruguayan Football Association is mounting a
defense for striker Luis Suarez, accused of biting an Italian defender's shoulder in Tuesday's Group D match.FIFA's disciplinary committee is meeting Wednesday night to discuss the consequences for Suarez. It gave a 5 p.m. deadline to Suarez and the Uruguayan FA to submit evidence in defense of the Liverpool star, including fresh angles of the incident and witness statements.
Uruguayan FA president Wilmar Valdez said that the footage against Suarez isn't convincing, according to The Guardian.
“We've prepared another video of the game in which we discovered there was other behavior similar to Suarez's in the game which did not generate a similar reaction from the press,” he said.
Senior FIFA sources told The Guardian that they expected at least a six-game ban for Suarez from the disciplinary committee, which would be less than his other suspensions from his prior biting incidents. According to FIFA, it's up to the independent committee whether to consider his history when levying a penalty.
Suarez's actions have forced various sponsors, including Adidas, to convene for “crisis talks” in Rio, as the paper described it.
According to Suarez's lawyer, the only reason the episode is getting so much traction is because of the player involved. “We don't have any doubts that this has happened because it's Suarez involved and secondly because Italy have been eliminated. There's a lot of pressure from England and Italy,” Alejandro Balbi said. “There is a possibility that they ban him, because there are precedents, but we are convinced that it was an absolutely casual play, because if Chiellini can show a scratch on one shoulder, Suarez can show a bruised and almost closed eye.”
Suarez, for his part, accepted no blame for the controversy after the game.
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