Luis Suarez: Is the whole picture black and white?

Luis Suarez – misunderstood? A lover of controversy? Or just a racist?

Whether you have made up your mind about him or not and at the risk of upsetting some United fans; please let me just point out a few things:

Firstly this is not the only occasion Patrice Evra has played the race card, in some fashion; a couple of years ago a groundsman at Chelsea was accused of racism. A man not likely to risk his job, something proved true when Evra was charged and all allegations were dropped.

Now surely this is not someone whose word you should rely on to bring a racism charge; as is the case with the Suarez disciplinary meeting. There is no video evidence of Suarez saying anything; no other player heard anything, even Patrice’s team mates. Hence why the case did not go to court, everything has to be proved behind reasonable doubt, obviously not at FA Headquarters!

If there was clear video evidence then a proud club like Liverpool, Kenny Dalglish and the fans would not stand by someone who would have been seen to be disgracing the club in eyes of the footballing world, not matter how talented he is.

I accept Suarez has admitted to using the term “Negrito” but in what context? Maybe we will never know. Although Evra’s reaction seems to suggest that it wasn’t as bad as we now all seem to think. I do not condone Zidane’s behaviour in the world cup final but it must be said that is the most common reaction to verbal abuse of any kind, all Evra did was go the referee at the end of the game, not during, after. Dignity perhaps?

At the hearing of the case Evra also admitted to verbally abusing Suarez in Spanish, first. Where was his punishment? Surely whether it was of racist content he should have been made an example of too?

One thing that is clear, however, is that John Terry, the then England captain, has not been brought to justice by the FA and yet he has been investigated by the police and is now having o endure a court case. Some may point to double standards and it is hard to argue or for the FA to justify.

Something else that has not been mentioned to often is that Luis Suarez is of mixed race origin, surely to be a racist would make him a self loathing hypocrite, which I do not think anyone can say he is. I don’t think anyone can argue that he seems to be a man very confident in his own abilities and skin.

I do not condone Suarez not shaking Patrice Evra’s hand, even if he didn’t want to. After all he promised Liverpool FC he would and it would not have done any harm. On the other hand you can see why he didn’t, why would he want to shake the hand of a player he feels may have cheated to get him banned from the game!

I am not standing up for Suarez, if he was racist to Patrice Evra then he should never put the red of Liverpool on again never mind play in the Premier League, however I do hope people realise Evra is not as innocent as everyone seems to make out! Not just in this instance

Whatever your opinion or where you club alliances lie, nothing can be proved; nothing has been proved and without clear video evidence nothing is black and white (excuse the pun.)

Now everyone has apologised, Suarez has served his ban so let’s get on with the football and hopefully in future it will be better than the game we all saw at Old Trafford on Saturday! It wasn’t the spectacle we all wanted to see – now that was the real shame of the day.

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