Thursday’s backpages all report that Liverpool forward Luis Suarez is devastated by the hefty suspension handed to him by the Football Association.
Leading football correspondents in The Telegraph (Chris Bascombe), The Times (Tony Barrett), The Mirror (David Maddock), Daily Mail (Dominic King) and The Guardian (Andy Hunter) all run similar stories that Suarez is considering his future after The FA handed an extremely harsh 10-match ban to him for the bite on Branislav Ivanovic.
The Guardian write that “Suárez feels victimised by English football authorities”.
The Mirror cite reports in Uruguay that claim Suarez’s agent will meet with Liverpool to discuss his future.
The Telegraph write that Suarez is “known to feel strongly that he has been too harshly penalised for his offence, particularly as he swiftly admitted his guilt.”
Several media outlets in the wake of the incident have reported how Liverpool intend to use sports psychologist Dr Steve Peters to aid Suarez. The question is though, why has Peters not been used already to help Suarez, a player clearly who needs help, in the months since he has been at the club already?
Meanwhile, former FA compliance officer Graham Bean, speaking on TalkSport Radio on Wednesday afternoon, advised Liverpool against appealing the ban:
“The problem they have is the only basis they can appeal on is if it’s an excessive penalty. That is chaired by an independent chairman and the reality of the situation is that they are walking a tightrope because an appeal panel can actually increase the penalty.
“If I was advising them, I would say to them, ‘take it on the chin, put it behind you and move on’. I think it would be a very risky strategy to appeal against it.”
Bean also explained that Suarez and Liverpool had claimed a 3 match ban would have been sufficient had likely worked against them:
“I think that was probably the wrong attitude to take. He may well have saved himself a couple of games had he just accepted what he was going to be given and moved on.
“The fact he challenged the FA in saying it wasn’t worth more than three games, when it clearly was, was a mistake. There was no realistic prospect that he was ever going to be successful in that argument.”
Liverpool will receive the “written reasons” for Suarez’s ban on Thursday when they will decide whether to appeal against the ban.
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