By Chrysanthus Ikeh
Everyone is hoping fans are not in for another round of biting on the field of play as Barcelona face Juventus in the final of UEFA Champions League 2015 with Luis Suarez, who now plays for the Spanish side coming face to face with Patrice Evra and Giorgio Chiellini.
Suarez had in the past been banned for a combined 17 games, four-months and fined £40k for racially biting and racially abusing the two Juventus players respectively at one time or the other.
In October 2011, Luis Suarez, who was playing for Liverpool then, was charged and found guilty of racially abusing Evra, then of Manchester United in their 1-1 draw at Anfield. He was consequently banned for eight games and fined £40,000. The punitive action led to Suarez refusing to shake hands with the French in the second leg of the game.
At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Luis Suarez again bit Giorgio Chiellini on the shoulder during Italy’s 1-0 defeat by Uruguay and the action earned Suarez a nine-match and four-month ban from all football activities, meaning that when he joined Barcelona from Liverpool for £75m in July 2014, he could not be officially unveiled, but only allowed to train with his new team-mates after appeal.
It was the third suspension of Suarez’s career for biting fellow footballers. He had bitten Chelsea‘s Branislav Ivanovic on the arm in April 2013, and PSV’s Otman Bakkal in 2010.
The Champions League between Barcelona and Juventus will take place on Saturday, June 6, 2015, at The Olympiastadion in Berlin, Germany.
