Having a taste for Italian

Photo: Luis Suarez holding his teeth after the biting incident (Getty Images)

The World Cup Group C decider between Uruguay and Italy was always going to provide sparks, especially since the game featured two of football’s most controversial strikers in Italy’s Mario Balotelli and Uruguay’s Luis Suarez. The stakes at hand – the winner of the game would advance to the round of 16 while the loser would head home.

An innocuous first half gave way to very a controversial second half. Italian midfielder Claudio Marcisso was red carded in the 59th minute by referee Marco Rodriguez for a dangerous foul on Egidio Arevalo Riosthe which meant the former champions would play a third of the match with one man short.

The really big moment however, separate from the winning goal from Uruguay captain Godin, was when Luis Suarez took a bite out of Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini. The incident was not spotted by the officiating team and so it went unpunished during the game.

However, football governing body FIFA has opened up a case to look to dish out a ban ranging from 2 matches or up to 24 months. This ban will have a lot of implications not just for the Uruguayan but also his club Liverpool. Many will want to argue that Liverpool paid the price already after the same Suarez bit an opponent in a league game in England and was banned for 10 games and also the fact that he was not representing Liverpool at time.

Should the ban be for just international football, Liverpool will then have to be dealing with that fact Suarez is probably the most hated striker in England. Suarez deliberately handled the ball on the line in the 2010 world cup, has racial charges against him and now 3 biting incidents. To make matters worse, Suarez single handedly knock the English out of this years World Cup with two goals and it begs the question of whether or not he can perform again in such an hostile environment?

It also begs another question, why on earth would such a talented and creative individual do something as distasteful, disgraceful and down right stupid? Was Suarez just literally “hungry” for a win. The final word comes down to FIFA and Liverpool fans, more than any other, will be listening out for this one.