BARCELONA WILL ACCEPT Luis Suarez with his “imperfections” and say that he will play a positive role despite his notorious World Cup bite, sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta said today.
Barcelona could not show off their new signing from Liverpool because he is serving a four month ban from all football for biting Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini.
Zubizarreta says: “Luis Suarez is going to play a positive role in the years he will be at Barcelona.”
The Spanish giants “accept humans with all their imperfections, all their mistakes and their capacity to learn from their errors.”
The incident with Chiellini during Uruguay’s World Cup group win over Italy was the third case of Suarez biting an opponent.
Barcelona paid a reported €95 million for Suarez, but he cannot train or play with them until November because of the four month ban imposed by a FIFA disciplinary committee.
He was also suspended for nine internationals and fined 100,000 Swiss francs (€82,000). A lawyer for Suarez has said the player will appeal against the biggest punishment imposed at the World Cup to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Asked if Barcelona wanted to get the ban reduced, Zubizarreta said: “We are analysing the information provided by FIFA to see how we can defend the player’s rights.”
Ready
He added that club lawyers had recommended that officials be “extremely prudent” when discussing the case.
Barcelona’s new coach Luis Enrique told the press conference he would have prefered to have Suarez ready at the start of the season.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Monday that the ban was “very severe” but that he had to accept the action of the FIFA committee.
As rumoured. Nice guy and a good servant. Still had a year on his contract so Quins ought to be paying something for him. A huge NIQ lock to replace him would be nice.
@Justin Robinson: Or has he already been replaced on the cheap with Matthew Dalton…?
@Justin Robinson: think you’re right. Given financial situation, I think an NIQ 9 would be more appropriate if Cooney is gone at end of season.
Augustus looks good for back row next year, and we are actually quite well served in second row with Sheridan/Izzy/AOC/ Hendy and Dalton if required
@Justin Robinson: I was thinking NIQ lock but with Humph seemingly softening on the NIQ Frontrows a NIQ TH, would be needed most out of all the provinces.
@Si: I guess we could get by at lock (although I’d much prefer Izzy at 6 and AOC is out of contract at the end of the season) but unless Hendy suddenly turns into Benjamin Button we’re certainly not strong there. We’re also short of a proper 15. Oh for a Payne, Ludik or Addison. It’ll be great to see Big Stu, JS and JH back out on the paddock against the Reds though.
@Kingshu: Maybe a big TH lock would help TOT and young Wilson? Corrie looked deadly from a foot out against Zebre!
@Justin Robinson: RG Snymans contact is up at Leinster, must be our turn for him now?
@Kingshu: Connacht will get their go before Ulster.
@Justin Robinson: I’d rather Slimani