Clearly insufficient. Don’t you just love the Football Association when they come over all masterful?
According to the guardians of our game, the standard ban of three matches for violent conduct would, in the case of Luis Suarez, be inadequate. How times change. When Jermain Defoe did much the same thing in 2006 the offence was deemed worthy of no more than a yellow card. Off you go you little scamp, said the FA, it really is none of our business.
For an organisation with a media arm so grand it may shortly qualify as an independent nation in the European Championship group stages, the FA behave as if we exist in the pre-internet age. In the good old days before Google, discipline could be dispensed on the hoof, after a lively lunch and with scant regard for precedent or consistency.
Chew couldn't make it up: Jermain Defoe was booked for biting Javier Mascherano but they will throw the book at Luis Suarez
To question the FA’s stance required both a cuttings library and a damn good memory. Garrincha was sent off in the 1962 World Cup semi-final for Brazil against Chile. At his FIFA hearing it was claimed he had acted only under severe provocation and had never been dismissed in his career. By a vote of five to two, he received a ‘symbolic reprimand’ and was cleared to play in the final, which Brazil won.
In fact, Garrincha had already been sent off three times for his club, Botafogo, twice in Brazil and once against Barcelona of Spain. In 1962, though, who knew? Yet the moment Suarez sank his teeth into Branislav Ivanovic, a rudimentary search for ‘football biting’ immediately turned up an incident between Defoe and Javier Mascherano in October 2006.
And also the FA’s scandalous reaction to it.
From this we know that Defoe’s manager, Martin Jol, dismissed it with a joke, that Defoe downplayed the seriousness of it in his half-hearted apology and that, most appallingly, the FA considered the matter closed with the issue of a yellow card by referee Steve Bennett. Seen and dealt with was the official line. Can’t re-referee the game, old chum.
Bite club: Suarez takes a chunk out of Branislav Ivanovic before the Serb shows referee Kevin Friend the evidence (below)
Lunging: Sergio Aguero was not booked for this tackle on David Luiz
No mention of a punishment that was clearly insufficient. No citing of a rule, highlighted this week by former FA compliance officer Graham Bean, that gives the governing body power to issue a misconduct charge ‘if the penalty does not fit the crime’. A rule that would appear to trump the mealy mouthed excuse of not wishing to undermine officials by pronouncing twice on the same event.
For if the FA have a get out of jail card linking crime and suitable punishment then the inertia we have witnessed over violent conduct in recent weeks — and for months and years before that — is inexcusable.
The FA witness tackles that could break legs, see arms thrown that cause brain damage, and pretend to be powerless to act. Then they alight on a show case and pounce. If they can weigh off the odd unsympathetic character like Suarez or John Terry, it makes them look decisive and principled.
The reality is they hide behind the skirts of FIFA, quivering when men of honour would take a moral lead.
We know what should have happened to Callum McManaman of Wigan Athletic, to Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero, to Sheffield United captain Chris Morgan many years ago when he left Iain Hume of Barnsley with a fractured skull.
We know what should have happened to Defoe, too. Instead, the FA will get their day in court and, amid a blaze of self-serving publicity, call it justice.
Lasting impression: Chris Morgan connects with Iain Hume, leaving an 18-inch scar around his head
Suarez will miss the rest of this season and as much as one month of next because, randomly, referee Kevin Friend was unaware of the extent of his transgression. Had he followed Bennett’s lead and merely booked Suarez, we presume nothing would be done. The governance of football cannot rely on oversights or bizarre twists of fate.
The FA must be putting their hands together in thanks for Friend’s ineffectuality. With an attentive referee they would not be able to indulge another favourite pastime: responding to big headlines.
There is nothing the FA loves more than a steaming, great call for something to be done. Always providing they are in the mood to do something.
Remember when Eden Hazard of Chelsea kicked that ballboy at Swansea City? Disgraceful. Yet when Matt Ritchie of Swindon Town did the same to a teenager at Oxford United less than a year earlier? No further action required. No headlines, no glory, not worth the fuss.
Precedent: Swindon's Matt Ritchie treats Aidan Hawtin just like Eden Hazard did Charlie Morgan
Hazard’s was another punishment that the FA considered clearly insufficient, yet they never consider addressing the problem in their rule book. A player is bitten and the FA issue statements as if the inadequacy of the system has come as a total shock. They were forced to climb down over Hazard when their double standards were exposed, but this will be different. There was wider public sympathy for the Chelsea player than exists for Suarez, so the FA can don the black cap with confidence.
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Certainly, only the most one-eyed admirer of the Uruguayan, or of Liverpool, is building a case for the defence. Biting is one of those offences that goes beyond the pale.
Gus Poyet, Suarez’s compatriot and manager of Brighton and Hove Albion, has attempted to debate why English football abhors it, yet often indulges a vicious tackle that could shatter bones, but few are ready for nuance just yet. They want Suarez brought to book and the FA are puppy-dog eager to oblige.
Yet is this the way forward for the game? Are we merely to rely on a set of haphazard circumstances falling fortuitously if justice is to be served?
We will act, say the FA, always providing an offence has been clearly committed, the referee hasn’t seen it, an old rule can be dug up and a man of principle is running the show that day. Otherwise, they are their own Mr Loophole, getting miscreants off the hook with jargon and technicalities.
So what if FIFA frown on additional punishments meted out from on high? This is about what is right, not what is vaguely written. Bring it on.
If the FA take a lead in administering fitting penalties for exceptionally violent behaviour, they will be on the right side of the argument and the rest of football will follow. Some braver associations are halfway there already.
And the rules are in place. Everyone knows that McManaman should have been severely punished for his tackle on Massadio Haidara of Newcastle United. Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League, pointed out the provision in FA rules to review a decision in extraordinary circumstances.
Lucky boy: Callum McManaman escaped without punishment for this challenge on Massadio Haidara
It is the same clause Bean identified about the penalty fitting the crime. It could be enforced for any challenge that resulted in serious injury, whether seen by the referee or not. A player might receive a red card for a reckless or foul challenge, but if it is stunningly malicious, the coupling of crime and punishment surely permits the FA to extend the ban.
Brutal: Roy Keane stands over a stricken Alf-Inge Haaland
When former Manchester United captain Roy Keane took out Alf-Inge Haaland of Manchester City, the straight red card shown by referee David Elleray was, to coin a phrase, clearly insufficient considering the savagery of the tackle. Yet it was not until Keane wrote about it in his autobiography, revealing the brute nature of his intentions, that the FA could levy the longer suspension he deserved.
This has to stop. We hear so much about the fine stewardship of FA chairman David Bernstein and how it is such a pity that he will soon be standing down but, like the rest of his number, he has failed to address one of the key issues of the modern game.
With the benefit of technology, we can see the challenges and instances that require further attention.
We can differentiate between fouls, even bad ones, and more outrageous extremes.
We understand that a referee can see an incident — as Bennett did Defoe’s reaction to Mascherano — without computing its enormity.
Bennett probably thought Defoe put his head towards Mascherano, without realising he had sunk his teeth into his upper arm.
He should not have been hostage to that mistake. This is for the FA to resolve and to fail in this duty would be insufficient. Not to mention pathetic, cowardly, and very, very wrong.
It all adds up: Robin van Persie won his first title in his first year at United
Numbers leave Gunners short
Those inside the Arsenal boardroom play a very interesting numbers game with the sale of Robin van Persie.
They factor in his wages, his transfer fee, the players bought with that resource, and calculate what a good deal it was from a financial perspective.
Arsenal are far from guaranteed a place in next season’s Champions League as yet and on Sunday the players will form a guard of honour for Van Persie and his Manchester United team-mates, now celebrating a 20th title.
Maybe United will pay similar tribute to Arsenal’s balance sheet.
One of the reasons why Roy Hodgson was swiftly doomed at Anfield was his chummy relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson.
Liverpool supporters see their club as being on a permanent war footing with Manchester United and want a manager who shares their antipathy. Rafael Benitez was perfect for them.
Revered: Liverpool fans gave Rafael Benitez a special welcome on his return to Anfield
Yet, so desperate is Benitez to stay in the good books at Liverpool and one day reclaim his job there that on Sunday, when a Chelsea player was bitten by Luis Suarez, he claimed not to have been aware of the incident and refused to comment when informed.
It was a day when battle lines were drawn. Those Liverpool supporters perplexed by the animosity towards Benitez at Stamford Bridge may now understand.
A dirty, rotten cheat: Mervyn Westfield pleaded guilty to corruption in January 2012
And while we're at it
Here is what cricket owes Mervyn Westfield: absolutely nothing. The former Essex bowler, jailed for two months over a spot-fixing scandal, is now going around with a chip on his shoulder, claiming a lack of support from his county, his players’ association and the ECB for his part in helping bring to justice ringleader Danish Kaneria.
He appeared at Kaneria’s appeal hearing this week, but only on summons. Westfield described his ordeal as torture. ‘No-one wished to protect me at any stage,’ he said.
Protect him from what? From being a dirty, rotten cheat? There is no protection from that. It lives within. Kaneria came into contact with thousands of cricketers and they didn’t all go bent. This is a new development, the idea of cheat as victim.
It is based on the youthfulness of Mohammad Amir when he fell into the clutches of a corrupt cabal at the heart of Pakistan cricket. Yet, just as Amir knew right from wrong, so did Westfield, and finally turning on Kaneria once the plot was discovered does not make him a hero.
Westfield thought he could get away with it and, when he didn’t, blew the whistle. His actions disgraced his sport. This payback is the least he can do, not a service worthy of gratitude.
Racing can't get on its high horse
Nicky Henderson will be formally declared champion jumps trainer at Sandown Park on Saturday; and nobody will mention the drugs. They didn’t when he won the Gold Cup with Bobs Worth, either. Racing is not like that.
The Cheltenham festival, we were told, would cleanse the foul air that surrounds a sporting culture dominated by football. And football’s big disgrace in Cheltenham week? Sir Alex Ferguson and Rafael Benitez had not shaken hands after Manchester United’s FA Cup tie against Chelsea.
Of course, it is easier for horse racing to perch atop the moral ground if a trainer suspended for three months for doping in 2009 wins the big one and it goes unspoken. Imagine if that were football. Rio Ferdinand had a missed drugs test from 2003 thrown at him as recently as last month.
On the march: Nicky Henderson celebrates victory with Sprinter Sacre at Punchestown
Yet the backdrop to Henderson’s first trainer title since 1987 — and that is a remarkable achievement, recent events notwithstanding — is the news that 11 horses owned and trained by the renowned Godolphin stable have tested positive for anabolic steroids. Included in the extended ban is Certify, among the favourites for the 1,000 Guineas on May 5.
Anything that is not stopped is encouraged. The celebrations and goodwill that have surrounded Henderson’s triumph this season reveal a deeper complacency.
Maybe the Godolphin scandal will shake the sport out of it; maybe it won’t.
There are higher-profile issues being decided as the season approaches conclusion, but nothing will be more thrilling than the fight to avoid relegation from League Two.
Bottom club Aldershot would need a great escape — although it is still not impossible — but, going into the final game of the season, two points separate the six clubs above them: Torquay United, Plymouth Argyle, York City, Dagenham & Redbridge, Barnet and AFC Wimbledon.
Lovers of a true underdog story will be rooting for one club only, of course. Nothing against the rest of them, but come on, you Dons.
Done and dusted: Gillingham wrapped up the League Two title, but the real fun is at the foot of the table...