The Luis Suárez Racism Saga

So where are we now? 

New Year’s eve was used to publish an FA Commissioned Report, which laid out the reasons for the 24 year old Liverpool striker, Luis Suárez being banned for 8 matches and receiving a £40,000 fine.

It seemed to have gone on forever, with LFC’s continued defence of Suárez, Man Utd keeping very quiet and (most) football fans & the media wanting strong action – this has been one of the most sensitive of situations for the FA to sort out in recent history.

The victim, Pratice Evra originally came out and accused Suárez of using racist terms against him at least 10 times during the Liverpool vs Man Utd game, back in October 15th 2011. It was clear that there was a heated dispute between the pair meaning the referee, Andre Marriner, had to intervene to calm them down.

The Clubs’ Reaction 

Liverpool’s reaction was to defend their star striker like there was no tomorrow. Illustrated in the picture below, the team went out in the warm up before their next match against Wigan, wearing Suárez t-shirts. This was widely condemned as critics pointed out that the gesture conflicted with clubs zero tolerance on racism. 

Liverpool Manager, Kenny Dalglish said: "We stand right beside him. Always have done and always will do, and that was reflected in the support he got from the stands tonight and the players beforehand.” 

Social Media 

Twitter users, as usual joined in the debate. 

Blackburn striker Jason Roberts tweeted: "The stance on the Suárez issue from LFC has bemused me… are United going to print Evra shirts now????? Some issues are bigger than football." 

TalkSport & former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore heated up the debate and received abuse in return such as the following: 

JonJuwanson “@StanCollymore Do us a favour Stan and go and hang yourself like Gary Speed did please. Ok Negrito.” 

Stan responded by favouriting these tweets and eventually reporting them to the Police.

“Just have one look at my favourites and tell me there isn't at least something to address. Nobody's playing any cards, its there to read.”

The Report

I haven’t read the 115 page report in whole myself. But have read much of the extracts that leant so much against Suárez. It condemned his evidence as “unreliable” and “inconsistent” and, at one point, “simply incredible.”

“We have found that Mr Suárez used the word “negro” or “negros” seven times in his exchanges with Mr Evra.”

It was the number of times and the manner of which these were used – aggressively the commission said that explained the judgement. I have heard a lot of LFC fans telling me that this was just a mis-understanding and that it was the cultural difference that meant it was not intended as racist. However the commission dismissed this argument. 

“It happened, also, in a number of phases,’’ the commission reported. 

“First, there were the exchanges in the goalmouth. Secondly, there was the exchange just before the referee spoke to the players. Thirdly, there was the exchange just after the referee had spoken to the players."

As well as indicating that these events occurred over a short period, the number of times insults were thrown by Suárez excluded the "heat of the moment" excuse. 

The report continued:

“The second aggravating factor was what Mr Suárez said when using the insulting words,’’ and “He did not simply use the word “negro” to address Mr Evra. He did that, but he also said that he had kicked Mr Evra because he was black, and that he did not talk to blacks.” 

"Even if Mr Suárez said these things in the heat of the moment without really meaning them, nevertheless this was more than just calling Mr Evra “negro”'. According to the Spanish language experts, the uses would have been regarded as racially offensive in Uruguay.” 

I have also maintained that the word “negro” is unacceptable anyway, regardless of context or cultural differences. And according the the report Suárez accepted this by the end. 

“He told us that he would not use the word “negro” on a football pitch in England in the future.’’ 

What do I think now? 

While collating the data for this post I’ve come to the conclusion, that it wasn’t just a case of the FA believed Mr Evra’s word, over Mr Suárez. And neither was should it be a Man Utd vs Liverpool issue. It is bigger than football and so that’s how it should be treated. 

Considering that during the period of the report’s release, the Steven Laurence case was back on the news, it was important the FA had the right reasons to charge and punish Luis Suárez. 

I have been amazed in the way people have defended Suárez, considering the issue at hand and before there was any investigation into the incident. I don’t believe the verdict has changed this for some. But I am glad there are people willing to speak out.

However, I am still concerned with the lack of apology from Luis Suárez even after being found guilty. He's statement more or less says, I accept the punishment but I have done nothing wrong. And there is no mention of an apology to Evra. You can read it yourself here http://www.twitlonger.com/show/f4b4a6.