Liverpool FC were told to leave Luis Suarez “walk alone”

Liverpool have been urged to abandon any thoughts of appealing against the eight-match ban and £40,000 fine that Luis Suarez received for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra, with a leading anti-racism campaigner warning the club that their vehement support of the Uruguayan is damaging their reputation.

The 115-page written verdict, which was released by the Independent Regulatory Panel on behalf of the Football Association on New Year’s Eve, presented Suarez's evidence as “unreliable” and “inconsistent” and painted a sorry picture of the manner in which the Merseyside club handled proceedings.

The Professional Footballers’ Association and anti-racism groups have supported the judgment and called on Liverpool to preserve their reputation and accept the verdict.

This was despite their legal team admitting flaws in their own evidence and failing to offer a satisfactory response when quizzed on the contradictions within the club’s and player’s testimony.

Piara Powar, the executive director of Football Against Racism in Europe, says Liverpool risk damaging their reputation unless they accept the findings.

   “Luis Suarez and Liverpool FC have the right to appeal, however we would call on the club to think again about their public campaign to dispute the charges and contest the principles involved in the case.

“As a club with a good international standing the vehemence of their campaign is unquestionably causing them reputational harm.

“Racial abuse between players on the field of play has been an unspoken taboo for too long, an area that has been unsatisfactorily dealt with by English football despite many cases over the past 10 years.”

Kenny Dalglish, Dirk Kuyt, Damien Comolli and Luis Suarez's legal representative Peter McCormick were all criticised in Football Association report.

Kenny Dalglish
The commission labelled elements of what the Liverpool manager told Marriner in his room immediately after the final whistle “surprising”, as it contradicted various elements of Suarez's own testimony. In his evidence, Phil Dowd, the fourth official at Anfield that day, said Dalglish had remarked “hasn’t he done this before?” in relation to Evra’s allegations, although this was not remarked upon in the report.

Dirk Kuyt
The Liverpool striker claimed that Evra had told Marriner he was being booked because he was black, an allegation rejected out of hand by the commission, who said the claim made “no sense”. The inconsistencies in his account of his conversation with Suárez after the game over what had been said weakened the Uruguayan’s case, according to the commission.

Damien Comolli
Another witness whose account of what Suarez had said to Evra “surprised” the commission. They drew attention to “discrepancies” in what Comolli reported to the referee about what Suarez had claimed to say to Evra in the immediate aftermath of the game and the striker’s evidence. They pointed out these discrepancies had “not been satisfactorily explained”.

Peter McCormick
Suarez's legal representative was highly criticised. His suggestion that Evra made up his claim that Suarez said “I don’t speak with blacks” to gain revenge on the Uruguayan for failing to explain why he had fouled him earlier in the game was deemed “unrealistic”. He also said that Suarez's claim that pinching Evra’s arm was an attempt to “defuse” the situation was due to “bad drafting” of the striker’s statement, a point that was also rejected out of hand by the commission.

Full report from the FA here: Luis Suarez case

This story has been reproduced from the media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club or Red's Fury™ blog.

Source: Telegraph

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