Suarez must take care playing dangerous game
Until the FA produce their report on the matter, it’s impossible to know for sure what happened, but Patrice Evra’s accusation that Luis Suarez used racist insults to “to wind [him] up” quickly split supporters along tribal lines, with United fans unanimous in condemnation of Suarez, and Liverpool supporters scrambling to undermine Evra by digging up past incidents where he had allegedly cried wolf.
Yesterday Suarez issued a statement via Twitter and Facebook expressing shock and protesting his innocence: “I’m upset by the accusations of racism. I can only say that I have always respected and respect everybody. We are all the same. I go to the field with the maximum illusion of a little child who enjoys what he does, not to create conflicts.”
Whatever Luis Suarez is, he is nothing like a little child. He has a born conman’s intuitive sense of what those around him are thinking, and how to turn it to his own advantage. There was an example of his keen deceptive instinct in the last minute of the Merseyside derby, when he went over to take a corner and found himself pelted with objects by the Goodison crowd. Suarez made a great show of picking up one of the missiles, handing it to the official in disbelief, ostentatiously lamenting the crowd’s poor behaviour and so on.
This whipped the crowd into a self-righteous lather and just at the point when Suarez was sure his little charade had got everyone’s attention, he suddenly whipped a quick pass into the area, and only the post denied Liverpool a third goal.
Moments like that are what makes Suarez so exciting to watch — his quick thinking surprises opponents and spectators alike. They also make it hard to take him seriously when he pretends to be a wide-eyed innocent. But could a player who specialises in reading opponents’ minds really have misjudged the culture of English football so horribly that he believes racist taunting is an acceptable part of the game?
In Spanish and Italian football, there is evidence that plenty of people think that racially abusing a black player is just another way of provoking him, like singing a song about him being fat. English football is different. There are those who argue that it is institutionally racist — only three of the 92 league clubs have black managers — but open racism, once widespread, is now taboo.
The players know this, which is why you have to go back to 2007 to find the last high-profile case involving players, when Newcastle’s Turkish midfielder Emre was accused of racially insulting Everton’s Joseph Yobo and Joleon Lescott (the FA found the accusation “not proven”).
If Suarez really used one epithet “at least 10 times” as Evra claims, it would be surprising if the cameras had missed all 10. Liverpool have to stand by their man because so much of their hope for the future rests on him, but if the allegation is proven, it will poison the reputation Suarez has established.
In case anyone thinks his reputation doesn’t matter, remember he would have cost Liverpool a lot more than €26.5m had his relationship with Ajax not broken down after he was banned for biting an opponent. Now he has denied Evra’s claim, Suarez must hope TV evidence doesn’t prove him a liar.
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