‘It was Chiellini’s foul. Suarez’s teeth got hurt!’ exclaimed one fan commenting on Facebook. As Uruguay marched into the second round courtesy of a Diego Godin header, it was once again Luis Suarez who grabbed the headlines after inexplicably biting Giorgio Chiellini. This World Cup has provided many heroes for the Twitter-sphere (such as Mexican goalkeeper Ochoa and manager Herrera) but it has now offered up a familiar villain. Suarez of course has a history of sinking his teeth into the opposition players, having been caught doing it twice before: once in 2010 during his Ajax days, earning him the moniker ‘The Cannibal of Ajax’ and then more recently against Branislav Ivanovic of Chelsea, earning him a 10 match ban.
The hashtag ‘#BanSuarez’ went viral on Twitter following the latest incident, and it now looks like FIFA might slap Suarez with a lengthy ban, of up to two years.
Robbie Fowler slammed Suarez by saying ‘he’s dragged Liverpool’s name through the mud again’, and the former Liverpool striker says it’s time Suarez left Anfield. Not everyone though, was as serious as Fowler. Most found it hilarious. Twitter has been flooded with images of Suarez wearing dog muzzles, photoshopped into Dracula outfits, onto the set of ‘Walking Dead’, wearing a mask like fictional cannibal Hannibal Lector from ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, and even as the shark from the iconic ‘Jaws’ poster (which came with a caption ‘Someone call Steven Spielberg’).
Luis Suarez is front page news today on The New York Times website. As one Twitter user put it ‘We’re all on a rock travelling through space and all we really want to know is why he keeps biting people’.
Even once-bitten boxing legend Evander Holyfield, who’s ear was famously partially chomped off by Mike Tyson, joined in the conversation saying ‘I guess any part of the body is up for eating’. One Norwegian fan had bet Suarez would bite someone at an odds of 175-1 and has now walked away nearly $1,000 richer.
Others yet bit into the frenzy to advertise. Trident, which makes chewing gum, went with: ‘Chew Trident. Not soccer players’. Similarly, Snickers posted a photo of one of its peanut and chocolate bars along with the caption: ‘More satisfying than Italian.’
But Suarez has always been a divisive figure. In the last World Cup, he blatantly kept out an injury time Ghana goal using his hands, which later saw Uruguay go through to the semi-finals. As mentioned before, he has a history of biting. One Liverpool fan on Twitter said ‘He lies, he cheats, he bites. He does all of this to win. And winning is all that matters.’ Similarly, Joey Barton, QPR midfielder, who himself has a controversial career, has thrown his support behind the Uruguay striker as well saying ‘I love Suarez. I love his passion for the game.’
Whatever FIFA deems is suitable punishment, Giorgio Chiellini and his Italian team-mates will be left licking their wounds, as at the end of the day, it is still Uruguay who move on to face Colombia in the next round. And they’ll probably have to do it without the mercurial, slightly insane, Luis Suarez.
-With New Age input
