Not for the first time, Liverpool are guilty of indulging Luis Suarez at the expense of a great football club’s reputation.
Not for the first time, John W Henry and the Anfield hierarchy have made the wrong call when it comes to taking a moral stance against the deplorable behaviour of their finest player.
They were wrong to stand by him when he racially abused Patrice Evra — an offence the Football Association considered worthy of an eight-match ban — and they were wrong to handle this astonishing biting scandal in the manner they did yesterday.
When Suarez committed the same offence in biting PSV Eindhoven’s Otman Bakkal in a Dutch league match in November 2010, Ajax banned him for two matches before the Dutch FA increased it to seven. He was branded the ‘Cannibal of Ajax’ by leading Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf and never played for the club again.
When Eric Cantona launched himself at Crystal Palace fan Matthew Simmons in 1995, Manchester United banned their most valuable player for four months, only for the FA to double it to eight.
But did Liverpool follow such examples yesterday? No, overcome by the fear of upsetting a player they believe they cannot
afford to lose — someone described by Steven Gerrard as the best he has played with in 15 seasons at Liverpool and without whom they could have been towards the bottom of the Barclays Premier League — they gave him a token fine, insisted his future remained at Anfield and showered him with praise for being a brilliant footballer.
Never mind he sunk his teeth into Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic at Anfield the previous day.
Ian Ayre, a managing director who is a poor imitation of former chief executive Peter Robinson, issued a list of reasons why Suarez is so wonderful. ‘He’s everything we’d want in a striker,’ said Ayre. Suarez is one of the finest forwards in Europe. But is the racism, biting and diving everything Liverpool want in their footballers?
Ayre and his American employers need to start listening. They need to listen to Graeme Souness, who branded Suarez an embarrassment and stressed the importance of ‘safeguarding the good name of the club’. They need to listen to Hillsborough Families Support Group chairman Margaret Aspinall, who did not respond as Ayre and his colleagues perhaps would have liked when they quickly announced yesterday Suarez would be donating his fine to the Hillsborough charity. ‘I would rather not be accepting the fine from Luis Suarez because I would rather he had not bitten that player,’ she said.
The club’s first actions yesterday should have been to ban Suarez from playing for Liverpool until the FA’s disciplinary process is completed.
Last night even Downing Street added to the chorus of disapproval, reminding the club that highly-paid footballers should be role models.
On Sunday night Brendan Rodgers said no player was bigger than the club. ‘All players can be replaced,’ he said.
What a pity Ayre and the Anfield hierarchy failed to recognise that yesterday. Instead, they scored yet another massive PR own goal. – Daily Mail