i think i'm in the minority in thinking that this ban is way too harsh. i don't think these three bites are too different to headbutts, other than that you see headbutts more frequently in football matches. had this had been luis suarez's third headbutt of his career, i don't think the ban would have been as harsh.
personally, i think there are far more worse actions in football. such as two footed tackles, where the offender can only be aiming to genuinely hurt the opposition. and these don't get punished anywhere nearly as severely as suarez has been. i would have banned him for 4-6 matches maximum, on the basis that i do not see a difference between this offense, and other offenses that deserve 3-6 game bans.
i think suarez is a "victim" of a bite being such as unique thing to do on a football pitch. as well as fifa being under a lot of pressure (for other reasons)
The potential direct physical harm to the opponent is not the only factor here.
To take it to an absurd extreme, if a player got his **** out and started stroking it on the pitch there's not much chance of physical damage to other players (unless the player is Malbranque), but you would still expect a harsh punishment.
Slightly less absurd, who was the player with the advertising on his underwear getting a fine? People were saying at the time that those fines were smaller than racism fans (aimed at associations), but again the situations aren't directly comparable.
Back to on the pitch football related stuff, a dangerous tackle might be correctly punished by a yellow card. The last man pulling down a striker by the shirt as he's through on goal probably gets a red card. Much more potential for direct physical harm on the first one, essentially no chance on the second one. The punishment isn't directly proportional to the potential for physical harm, nor should it be.
You might argue that this is too harsh, but for me he got a handful or so games in Holland, he got 10 games at Liverpool and now he's gotten 20-ish games. If he does it again he might get a season? Either way the message is clear, you cannot keep biting people.
I agree, leg breaking challenges and headbutts are much worse, give me a choice between recieving a headbutt and recieving a bite and i know which id choose.I dont really understand why its such a large ban.I guess as you say because its the "unique" ness of it and the 3rd time he's done it and they are under pressure to make it a lengthy ban this time.
He put them under that pressure by biting people repeatedly.
I would rather receive a bite than a leg break, sure. But like I've outlined above the potential for physical harm isn't the only deciding factor when handing out punishments.
