ITALY’S BIT-TER END
Azzurri ousted as Suarez gets away with chomp . . . for now
SAO PAULO — Uruguay knocked mighty Italy out of the World Cup on Tuesday with a 1-0 victory that had real teeth to it — those fangs belonging once again to Luis Suarez.
Suarez is infamous for channeling Mike Tyson and irrationally biting opponents in emotional moments. He clearly clamped his mouth down on Giorgio Chiellini’s shoulder, from the back, in the 79th minute of the match. While Chiellini attempted to show the bite mark to the referee, Suarez fell to the ground and held his teeth, as if he were in great pain. “These things happen in the box,” Suarez reportedly told Uruguayan media. “We were in contact, chest against shoulder, and I got a knock to the eye.”
“Suarez is a sneak and he gets away with it because FIFA wants its stars to play in the World Cup,” Chiellini told Sky Sport Italia. That might be changing, however. FIFA said early Wednesday that its disciplinary committee has opened proceedings against the Uruguay forward after charging him with biting. If the panel finds Suarez − who was not disciplined on the field − guilty of assaulting an opponent, FIFA rules call for a ban of at least two matches up to a maximum of 24 months. FIFA asked the team to present evidence by 5 p.m. Wednesday. A decision must be reached before Saturday, when Uruguay plays Colombia in a round-of-16 match.
Any action would depend on FIFA judging the case using video evidence — something FIFA president Sepp Blatter supports. Video reviews
are used sparingly at the World Cup, and FIFA said it would first review match referee Marco Rodriguez’s report before evaluating it.
Just two minutes after the bite, Uruguay defender Diego Godin deflected a corner kick into the goal with his own shoulder for the winner.
As a result, Uruguay finished in second place behind Costa Rica in Group D, while Italy was knocked out in the first round for the second straight World Cup, coming off its 2006 championship.
In April of 2013, sports psychologist Dr. Thomas Fawcett of the University of Salford predicted to the BBC that Suarez would likely bite again.
“It’s in the man,” Fawcett said. “I would think that in five years’ time if there was a certain nerve hit or chord rung with Suarez in a different situation he would react in the same way.” Apparently some cagey soccer fans felt the same way.
ESPN reported that Betsson, an online gambling site from Malta, offered 175-1 odds that Suarez would bite someone in Brazil. The prop bet turned into a big payday for 167 people who took their chances on an apparent long shot.
Thomas Syverson, a Norwegian based in the city of Trondheim, told ESPN that he placed the equivalent of a $5.25 bet (3.85 euros) on Suarez “just for fun” and ended up pocketing $916. One unidentified bettor made $3,300, according to Betsson.
Italy required only a draw in this match, but that task was made more difficult after midfielder Claudio Marchisio was shown a red card in the 60th minute for a studs-up tackle.