A lot has been said with regards to Luis Suarez, and Liverpool's full support given to him, with a defiant statement, a cringeworthy twitter post and embarrassing attire, with Suarez's silhouette. Not only is this behavior embarrassing, it is simply choosing partisanship over the rules, with the club seemingly willing to support their star man through any situation. I want to look at the facts, an
d determine whether, from the information we have, Luis Suarez has done any wrong, but also to look at the club's position, and try to understand why such backing has been given to someone found guilty of committing a racist act.
An independent panel found Suarez guilty of racially abusing another player. From what I have heard, Suarez has admitted using the word, and has not disagreed with the generally accepted position that he said this on a number of occasions. Liverpool, very kindly, leaked their stance to the press, despite being told that this should not happen, which has led us to note that his defence was on the grounds that the word used was not intended as racist, and the fact that the term is culturally acceptable in Uruguay. Based on the fact that he used the word repeatedly, and continued using it despite Evra's apparent provocation, I am led to believe that he knew what he was doing, and therefore is guilty of the act.
Prior to the verdict, Liverpool leaked the details of their defence to Henry Winter, writer for The Telegraph, and allowed the story to go ahead, breaching the agreed terms of the case. The importance of this is that Liverpool fans, as well as the rest of the interested public, know one side of this story, whilst Manchester United and Patrice Evra adhered to the rules of the case and remained silent. This has led many to question the validity of the United/Evra case, claiming that there is no evidence, rather than understanding that there is no evidence available. The sheer outrage of Liverpool supporters, has been caused by their own club, and has since been backed up by the vehement, and bullish statement that followed the decision.
The final point that I would make is that until the full disclosure is made available to both Liverpool Football Club, and the public, no one (club or supporters) should have to decide where they stand in the issue. Obviously people will have opinions, but the way that the club have dealt with this issue is, in my opinion, classless and confrontational. I believe that the club have created this division, and have created more of a stir than was necessary, and should have waited for full facts before binding themselves to a position.
