Suarez Revisited

For the second time I have felt the need to write a blog because of Luis Suarez. Again, I find myself defending him, and again, he seems to be the victim of a witch hunt.

Today I read an article quoting Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny labeling Suarez a cheat. I won't quote everything he said, but one of his accusations was: "He is a player who likes to dive as soon as there is contact."

Koscielny is just the latest in a line of critics to attack the Uruguayan and label him a cheat. Now, as a Liverpool fan, I watch Suarez week in week out, and all I see is a player who gives everything in every game, clearly loves the game of football and wants to win. I honestly don't understand where this "reputation" he has has come from.

Now, I'm not denying Suarez has dived, the dive against Stoke was comical, but it's not something he does on a regular basis or something he does more often than any other player. And when I say player, I don't just mean foreign players, I include British players in this as well, see Ashley Young, Danny Welbeck, Gareth Bale, and our own England captain Steven Gerrard.

However, these players have never come under the same sort of attack as Luis Suarez has. Now, on twitter and facebook, I always see people stating that they hate Suarez, or words to that effect, but I don't know why. Well I do, because he's a brilliant player and he plays for Liverpool. If I asked you to name incidents that make you hate him, I'm sure the response, first of all, would be the handball in World Cup 2010. I really don't understand the controversy surrounding this. One of the unwritten rules of football, that all players will attest to, is that if you're on the line and the ball's going in, and you can't get to it with any part of your body except your hand, you take one for the team. A penalty and a red card is better than a goal. Okay if you're 5-0 up you let them have the goal, but at 1-1 in extra time of the World Cup quarter final, you're not going to let the other team get the winner.

Another incident that would probably be mentioned would be when he bit an opponent whilst at Ajax. Bare in mind he was 23 at the time, this is no excuse, but he was still relatively young. A moment of madness, most people would probably think it was great if Balotelli did something like this.

Finally, and most obviously, is the racial abuse incident involving Patrice Evra. I don't want to go into too much detail on this, as it's in a previous blog. But the punishment in relation to the evidence presented still shocks me, as well as the media uproar it caused. This is what has harmed Suarez the most, and I imagine John Terry will not be subject to the same ordeal. Terry has already been let off with a lesser punishment for what was, in my opinion, a worse crime, that also had clear video evidence.

The media are the biggest culprits in continuing the Luis Suarez witch hunt. In my opinion it is lazy journalism. Ask anyone in football about Luis Suarez, get them to say he's a cheat, and this is, in their opinion, newsworthy. The problem is, the reason the people they're quoting think Suarez is a cheat is because the media told them he is, and not because they watch him week in week out like I do, and see that a cheat is one of the things Luis Suarez actually isn't.

Now I have my own theories about why Suarez has been the victim of this hate campaign, but I won't go into to much detail as I will probably be labeled a conspiracy theorist. However, lets suffice to say I believe Suarez is a great player, up there with the best in the world, and could easily make the first team of the best clubs in the world, ie Barcelona and Real Madrid. I'm pretty sure Suarez will end up at a club like this at some point, because he will be forced out of the country by the hate he receives off his people.

I can compare this scenario to one involving another player, and that is Cristiano Ronaldo. Today, the media praise Ronaldo, they love him, he is one of the best if not the best footballer in the world. But his time in England was tough, he was also labeled a cheat, and was made public enemy number one after the 2006 World Cup. Why? Because of a wink. A wink.

So what will happen to Suarez? He will leave this country at some point, no doubt the media will be made up. Fans of other teams will be ecstatic. Then, when he plies his trade in Spain, or Italy, or Germany... our country's media will love him.


@adamheath