Uruguayan team-mates backing Suarez as race row lingers on
After the FA’s independent panel found Suarez guilty, there was outrage in his home country, where the 24-year-old is a national hero after scoring goals in the Copa America quarter-final, semi-final and final last summer.
Napoli midfielder Walter Gargano accused Patrice Evra of jealousy in pursuing the story: “For me this is a massive fiasco and now Luis needs to be supported more than ever.
“I don’t know why this boy (Evra) had to come out and talk about it, maybe he’s jealous of Luis. Perhaps he didn’t feel secure in his team and looked for a way of getting into the news.
“I don’t think Luis said what he did out of racism. It was a football matter. It’s a shame. This can happen to any player. I’ve had to play against other players, where things have been said, but they stay there.”
Uruguay captain Diego Lugano also supported his team-mate on his website: “Luis is a victim. I can’t understand how a player like Evra can do this. He’s breaking all the codes of football. We all know what kind of person Luis is and the values he has.”
Another team-mate, Sporting Gijon midfielder Sebastien Eguren, added: “This is an injustice. Luis is a very respectful person. I don’t understand the decision that has been taken and the position taken against the player. There is total support for Luis at the moment. We know the type of person he is and that he is a victim of a different culture.”
The former Paraguay coach, whose team were beaten in the final of the Copa America, after Suarez scored the opening goal, also backed the Uruguayan. Gerardo Martino, a former Argentina international on the verge of being appointed Colombia coach, told Ovacion newspaper: “All of us who know Luis know if he made this remark it was not disrespectful. In Uruguay, and even more so in football, we use terms which can be wrongly interpreted by people from other places. You can’t call him a racist because of that. A lot of the time we refer to a friend of colour as a ‘negro’ in an affectionate way. Perhaps we end up paying the price of entering other cultures which are more closed.”
Meanwhile Gustavo Poyet said he backs his fellow Uruguayan to the hilt. “The ban is incredible, shocking, it’s disproportionate. I back Luis to death,” he told the Ultimas Noticias newspaper in Uruguay. “Things have happened before with Evra. He is not a saint. He is a controversial player.
“I have tried to explain that we live with coloured people in Uruguay. We share different experiences with them. We play football, we share parties. We are born, we grow up and we die with them. We call them ‘blacks’ in a natural way, even in an affectionate way. That is the way we were brought up. We are integrated and there are no problems from either side.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
