Suarez biting the hand that feeds him - again (ESPN article)

by Dave Usher for ESPN

So Luis Suarez has belatedly apologised to Giorgio Chiellini. He's also apologised to "the entire football family" and vowed to the "public" that it will never happen again.

Presumably Liverpool FC, Brendan Rodgers and the fans who have all steadfastly stood behind him throughout all of his various problems are included under the umbrella of "the entire football family", but forgive me if I'm more than a little annoyed at his failure to apologise directly to the club and supporters that he has once again let down with his inexplicable antics.

The bite itself was bad enough, but the decision by Suarez, his advisors and Uruguay to adopt an "all or nothing" approach and completely deny the whole thing only made a bad situation worse from a Liverpool perspective. Liverpool and their supporters are the innocent party in this whole sorry affair, so some sort of public apology from Suarez to his employers would have been nice.

The ban probably was excessive (at least the sanctions that dragged Liverpool into something that they had absolutely no control over was), but this is a situation completely of the player's own making. If he doesn't bite an opponent and then embarrassingly try to deny it, none of this happens.

It's gone way beyond the bite for me now, though.That was not a deliberate, well thought out act, it was instinctive and I'd wager that even Suarez himself cannot explain how it happened. He bit Chiellini because he lost control, and when he loses control this is what he tends to do. He has a problem and he needs help dealing with that problem.

A split second loss of control may explain (though not excuse) the bite, but what has happened since has been far more calculating and self-serving. If anything, his conduct in the days that have followed the bite has been worse than the incident itself and this belated apology is simply insulting to Liverpool. It may as well have been printed on FC Barcelona headed notepaper, as it's obvious what the motivation behind it is. Liverpool reportedly had no idea the apology was coming and clearly neither did the President of Uruguay, who could have done with a quick heads up before he went on the offensive and insulted FIFA just a few hours before Suarez confessed.

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