Uruguay’s President, Jose Mujica, has slammed football’s governing body, FIFA, over the “fascist” ban it imposed on the country’s top striker, Luis Suarez, for biting an opponent at the World Cup in Brazil.
The attack came during the Uruguay team’s welcoming ceremony on
Sunday as the players returned home after the 0-2 loss to
Columbia in the last 16 of the Mundial.
When asked by journalists of how he would remember the current
World Cup, Mujica replied: “FIFA are a bunch of old sons of
bitches.”
The President then covered his mouth with his hand as if he was
himself shocked by what he just said in public. A few seconds
later however Mujica smiled and allowed the journalists to
publish his comments.
Uruguayan president believes that Suarez deserved to be punished
for biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini during a World Cup group
stage clash last week.
But the sanctions against the forward, who was banned for nine
national team games and for four months from all FIFA governed
football activity, are too harsh and just “fascist.”
A few days after the biting incident, Mujica appeared on De Zurda
television show, hosted by football legend Diego Maradona, and
defended the “excellent player” Suarez.
FIFA don’t want to forgive the Uruguayan striker because “he
never went to university” and therefore "naturally
carries with him the rebelliousness and pains of those, who climb
up from below", he said.
According to Mujica, the disqualification of Suarez is an
“attack on all of the kids of Uruguay” by the football
bosses, who “don’t understand anything’ and “don’t
forgive.”
Suarez scored two goals in two games at the World Cup to help
Uruguay beat top names Italy and England on the way to the
knockout stages.
But with their best attacker out of action, the Uruguayans failed
to threaten the Colombian goal and lost in the first round of
playoffs.
Suarez, who previously denied biting Chiellini, admitted his
guilt on Monday and apologized before the Italian defender.
"Independent from the fallout and the contradicting declarations
that have surfaced during these past days, all of which have been
without the intention of interfering with the good performance of
my national team, the truth is that my colleague Giorgio
Chiellini suffered the physical result of a bite in the collision
he suffered with me,” Suarez said in a statement on his
official website.
"For this: One, I deeply regret what occurred. Two, I apologize
to Giorgio Chiellini and the entire football family. Three, I vow
to the public that there will never again be another incident
like this involving me," he added.
It’s the third biting incident in the career of the forward, who
is equally famous for his great talent and dirty style of play.
When he was playing for Ajax Amsterdam in the Dutch league,
Suarez assaulted Otman Bakkal with his teeth during a match
against PSV in 2010.
Last year, he nipped the shoulder of Chelsea’s defender,
Branislav Ivanovic, while playing for Liverpool in the English
Premier League.