Suarez ban ‘an act of barbarity’, says Uruguay skipper Lugano

Uruguay captain Diego Lugano described Luis Suarez’s four-month ban as ‘an act of barbarity’ that breaches the player’s human rights.

Fifa suspended Suarez from all football-related activity until the end of October after he bit Giorgio Chiellini during Uruguay’s final group game on Tuesday.

Suarez sat out Saturday’s second-round match against Colombia and Uruguay suffered without him, falling to a 2-0 defeat thanks to a brace from James Rodriguez.

After the match, Lugano lashed out at Fifa for imposing the record ban on Suarez.

“It’s a breach of human rights that a player cannot go into a stadium where there are 80,000 people or into a hotel with his team-mates, that he cannot work for four months,” the defender said.

“He has committed a crime, but this [ban] is barbarity. Not even a criminal would receive this penalty.”

Uruguay were weak up front without Suarez in the Maracana, where James Rodriguez scored two stunning goals for Colombia.

Diego Forlan, 35, played poorly and Edinson Cavani did not have the same impact as against England when he played alongside Suarez. Lugano thinks Uruguay were always going to find it hard to make the quarter-finals without their star man.