View of incident depends on where you’re standing

Every reporter knows that ‘Man bites dog’ is a good story. This week’s global media storm has also taught us that ‘Luis Suarez bites opponent’ is big news, but in many different ways.

The media reaction to Suarez sinking his teeth into Italy defender Georgio Chiellini was even more rapid with the initial outcry loudest in the British press. Wednesday’s Daily Mirror front page read ‘The Vampire Returns’. The Daily Mail chose ‘Make Biter Suarez a Pariah’ as its headline, while the Daily Express went with ‘Jaws II’.

The outrage and opportunism was not just confined to the tabloids, with the broadsheet Daily Telegraph calling for Fifa to ‘Ban this Monster’ across its back page. Political weekly New Statesman worked out that an opponent facing Luis Suarez had roughly a one in 2,000 chance of being bitten, about the same probability of suffering a shark-attack at Florida surfing resort New Smyrna Beach.