Did Suarez get rough end of the stick?

Luis Suarez holds his teeth after running into Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini’s shoulder during the Group D match on Tuesday. — AP

There have been violent head-butting incidents. Portugal’s Pepe head-butted Thomas Muller in Brazil and escaped with only a one-match ban. And, Fifa gave only three-match ban (and fine) to Zinedine Zidane for his infamous head-butt on Marco Materazzi.

It seems that the football mandarins think that Suarez has committed a ‘rarest of rare crime’ thus gave him a severe punishment. It is a different matter that the Uruguayan’s victim thinks punishment is too harsh.

Giorgio Chiellini has expressed surprise at the quantum of punishment handed out to Uruguay striker Luis Suarez for leaving teeth marks on his left shoulder. The Italian defender reckons that the punishment given by Fifa was too harsh. Suarez was banned from all football activities and stadiums for four months, suspended from Uruguay’s next nine internationals, and fined.

Writing a blog for ‘Sportlobster ‘, Cheillini writes that he held no feelings of joy, revenge or anger against Suarez for the incident. “It happened on the pitch and it is done.”

He also wrote that his only thought was for Luis (Suarez) and his family, because they will face a very difficult period.

Suarez was trolled on social media over Chiellini bite and fans made loads of fun at the expense of mercurial Uruguayan.

There are snide comments in some quarters that had it been a European, the quantum of punishment would have been much lesser. However, a Fifa’s most serious punishment of an eight-match ban was handed out to Italian Mauro Tassotti in 1994 for breaking Luis Enrique’s nose with an elbow. Therefore, it is difficult to digests arguments about European bias.

At the same time, I believe that Suarez got the rough end of the stick.

In the same Brazil Finals, Fifa dealt somewhat lightly with Portuguese defender Pepe by giving him only a one match ban for head-butting German’s Thomas Muller in a ‘Group A’ match.

Also, there was only a three-match ban and fine on Zidane for violently head-butting Materazzi on his chest in an off-the-ball incident. Since he had retired from international football after the World Cup, he was asked to do three-game community work for Fifa and later restored. He even worked for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid.

Like France backed Zidane post the 2006 head-butting incident, Suarez has also received overwhelming support in Uruguay, including his country’s President Jose Mujica and the national team coach Oscar Tabarez, who has threatened to resign from two Fifa posts in protest at the “excessive severity” of Suarez’s ban.

Suarez was widely mocked for his bite but the heavy punishment has evoked sympathy for this serial-nibbler, who is a delight to watch when he lets his foot talk on the pitch rather than his bite.