Uruguay hit out at ‘excessive and disproportionate’ Luis Suárez ban
Uruguay will appeal against the “excessive” four-month ban given to Luis Suárez for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini.
The striker will miss Uruguay’s last-16 match against Colombia in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday and will play no further part in the World Cup if they progress after being banned for nine competitive matches as well as fined £67,000.
Speaking outside Fifa’s base in Rio, the Uruguay federation president, Wilmar Valdez, said: “We are preparing our appeal now, we have three days to do it. It is an excessive decision and there was not enough evidence and I have seen more aggressive incidents recently.
“It is a severe punishment. I don’t know exactly which arguments they used but it is a tough punishment for Suárez. It’s feels like Uruguay has been thrown out of the World Cup. We all know what Suárez means to Uruguay and to football around the world - not having Suárez would be a loss to any team.”
The minister of tourism and sport, Liliám Kechichián described the ban as “disproportionate”. She said that want mattered now was “to help a human being [Suárez] and see if the group [the national team] shows its pride and love of Uruguay”.