On Luis Suarez’s bite
By Sihan Zheng
Luis Suarez seems to have gotten himself quite a bit of a reputation hasn’t he? In the Uruguay vs Italy match, it has been ruled that Luis Suarez bit Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini. I suppose you have seen it multiple times already on TV, Twitter, and Facebook. If not, unfortunately, the best footage recently got taken down from YouTube, so check out this (slightly NSFW) dramatization:
In the short period of time since that happened, it has been replayed countless times on every TV channel. There has been memes, jokes, and even a
mocking Suarez’s bite. Most of the comments however, were either calling for his suspension or mocking Suarez. Lets take a look at the bite and speculate a bit on what the bite would mean shall we?
The Bite
There isn’t much speculation on why would Suarez bite. Considering that it is his third offense, the majority of commentators simply consider him to be crazy. They compare him to Mike Tyson and Dennis Rodman, and the tabloids have started to dig out old BBC articles as proof that Luis Suarez has mental issues of some sort.
But looking at the video evidence, I would say that Suarez’s bite is not an accident. After all, if it was an accident, why would Suarez be the only player famous for his bites? I do not believe the idea that Suarez simply slipped and fell on Chiellini’s shoulder. Suarez does not usually run with his mouth open, and if it was unintentional, why would these incidents happen to Suarez 3 times, when we rarely hear about them otherwise?
As for mental illness, there might be a possibility that Luis Suarez has some form of mental illness, but then this is his third time, wouldn’t Liverpool or the Uruguay National team have provided professional mental help for him? Liverpool did bring in someone to help with his perceived problems and it was thought to have helped, given that Suarez got through last season without incident after he served the remainder of his suspension. It is a plausible explanation, but I think I have a better one.
In my opinion, Luis Suarez willingly bites opposing defenders to gain an advantage. It is not an accident, nor is it mental illness, or a display of arrogance. It is impossible to deny that Suarez is a brilliant player, and this is simply another way in which he shows his brilliance. His bites are a calculated move, used in desperation for a bit of an advantage.
Let’s start from the beginning. Note Suarez’s position and the direction he is looking in. The game was 0-0 at the time, and with Uruguay desperately needing a win to progress, Suarez positions himself in the penalty box, and prepares to strike. Note how he was looking at the direction of the referee at this time.
Obviously, the referee at the time was looking at the ball, and not at the direction of Luis Suarez. And this is when he probably decided to bite. At this point in time, Suarez runs into Chiellini, and locks himself into Chiellini’s arm, never taking his eyes off the referee.
He then quickly pulls out his right arm and jumps on Chiellini’s back, sinking his teeth into Chiellini’s shoulder.
Or from an alternative camera angle:
However, closely observe what Suarez does immediately afterwards. After all, Chiellini probably screamed out in pain, drawing the attention of the referee, but the bite was very quick, and most likely the referee did not see the bite actually happen, by the time he turned his head around, this happened:
Chiellini inevitably and most likely reflexively spun around, and hit Suarez on the face. Approximately 1 second has passed between the original bite and his moment, and the referee most likely has already turned around to observe this incident, and would have seen that Suarez got hit in the face with an elbow.
Chiellini inevitably and most likely reflexively spun around, and hit Suarez on the face. Approximately 1 second has passed between the original bite and his moment, and the referee most likely has already turned around to observe this incident, and would have seen that Suarez got hit in the face with an elbow.
After getting taken down, Suarez does clench his jaw and roll around. Whether it was actually painful or not is up for debate, but he does try his best to “sell” the fact that he got taken down, in an attempt to get a penalty.
However, his bite left marks on Chiellini’s shoulder, marks that he immediately showed the referee. In light of this undisputable evidence, he gave a free kick to Italy. But probably due to the fact the he does not in any way know what to do with Suarez, the referee did not punish him further.
Looking at the sequence of events, I would say that Suarez willingly, deliberately, chomped down for an advantage. He was probably either looking for a red card or a penalty. It was a desperate move near the end of the game, but think about it from a game theory perspective.
Either Uruguay doesn’t win, and they don’t make it out of the group, or he can take a bite, hope for a positive reaction, and possibly win. Yes it is a dirty move that might get him suspended, but from Suarez’s perspective, it is a move of desperation, a last ditch attempt to get a penalty kick to win the game.
The aftermath
So after around a day of deliberations, FIFA handed Suarez a ten game ban plus 4 month ban “from all football activities”. With that, Suarez had to pack up and head home. He wasn’t even allowed into the stadium to watch his teammates lose to Colombia, he had to catch the game on TV.
Is biting a dirty move that directly contradicts the law of the game? Yes. But what will happen to Suarez? Fifa actually doesn’t have the jurisdiction to ban him in England. They can only ban him in international competition, and which international competition is more important than the World Cup? But they can just ban him from the game all together, and I don’t think Suarez remembered that when he was assessing the risks and rewards of biting.
Personally, I believe that this makes Suarez’s biting even more despicable. It is not an accident, or a mental illness, it isn’t even simply the result of rage or desperation, but it is a calculated move to get himself a penalty. This is worse than any dive or foul, and FIFA had to punish him heavily to maintain the integrity of the game. But is a 4 month punishment too harsh?
Chiellini himself thinks the punishment is a bit harsh. Suarez has gone home a hero. The Uruguayan press claimed that Suarez was persecuted unfairly, while they have gone on to attack journalists who disagree with their views on Luis Suarez. But honestly, there is no precedent for biting, and it is difficult to say whether it is too harsh of a punishment or not.
However, I do understand Fifa’s thought process on this matter. Suarez was banned for ten games last time for biting, and it would only reason that he would be banned for longer for his third offense. A ban of 4 months would mean that aside from the Colombia vs Uruguay world cup match, he would also miss 9 Premier League games, a few Capital One Cup games, and a few UEFA Champions League games. Aside from friendlies, he would miss approximately 15 games. Possibly a bit more, as a ban from “all football activities” would mean that he would be in poor form, and he might not be able to hit the ground running, so to speak.
What does this mean for Liverpool?
The loss of Suarez is going to hit Liverpool quite hard. It is difficult to speculate what losing Suarez would mean for Liverpool, but let’s take a look and try to make some educated guesses.
If we were to look at Suarez as an asset, his value has just crashed. There has been quite a few rumors suggesting that Luis Suarez will be sold, linking him with big clubs like Barcelona. The bite has demolished his value, which team would buy a player would is banned for the first two months of the season? Suarez’s value has dropped, with rumors suggesting that his transfer value has dropped from £90 million to £50 million. I doubt that Liverpool would part with him at this point in time, Suarez would probably stay at Liverpool until at least the January transfer window.
As for Liverpool’s performance? It is very difficult to predict how the loss of Suarez would affect Liverpool’s performance in cup competitions, those are too luck driven. As for league games, we can run some rough predictions. Play with the Pythagorean expectations widget here to look at what losing Suarez would mean for Liverpool.
Liverpool are the biggest losers here. The bite demolished the value of their biggest asset, and they have lost the services of arguably their best player. The Premier League is tough, and without Suarez, Liverpool might no longer be considered contenders. The ban will be appealed, and Liverpool is looking at their options. We will update you here as soon as we hear more about it.