Why Liverpool must draw clean line under Suarez row or risk soiling the club's name

By Brian Reade

Published 21:03 23/12/11

Around now it's customary to hand out jokey awards based on events in the past footballing year.

But after such a year, and particularly such an ending, jokes are out.

For weeks the game has struggled to come to terms with Gary Speed hanging himself. Before that it struggled to understand how Carlos Tevez could refuse to get off the bench and earn his £225,000-a-week, or how other multi-millionaires were allowed to buy injunctions which kept themselves above the law.

The World Cup bidding process stank of the same corruption that FIFA's top officials were found guilty of, and the words of Sepp Blatter, John Terry and Luis Suarez have evoked a national debate over racism.

The words used by all three may not be the same but they have created the context in which each has been judged.

Terry's comments cannot be discussed, other than to say he protests his innocence, but the global coverage given to the allegations against England's captain were no doubt in Blatter's mind when he bizarrely argued that a player who is racially abused should shrug it off by shaking the hand of his abuser.

Those words hardly caused a ripple of concern outside these shores. But in England, partly due to simmering anger towards Blatter, they evoked a hurricane of contempt. There was shock and disbelief that the head of world football could send out such a flippant response to an issue that scars humanity.

And they were undoubtedly behind the FA's unprecedented eight-match ban handed out to Suarez for "using offensive language" to Patrice Evra "that included an inappropriate reference to a person's colour."

Suarez denies he is a racist. Indeed the FA in their judgement and Evra in his statement do not accuse him of being one. His case states that he unknowingly used a word which is acceptable in Uruguay but not in Britain. The independent panel's almost impossible task was to decide whether ignorance is a defence. They decided it wasn't. And in the cold light of the present day they had little choice.

The rage from Anfield over the eight-game ban is understandable. They believe Suarez has not only been scapegoated but the unprecedented punishment makes it look like he's committed the worst act of racism ever heard on an English football pitch. Which he didn't.

But the truth is, he used the word "negro" to a black player who reported it to the FA. And he admitted it, before pleading cultural ignorance of its significance. In any other year that may have earned him a suspended sentence and a hefty fine. But following its ascent to the moral high-ground in condemning Blatter, English football was never going to leave itself open to charges of hypocrisy on this subject.

Especially with the country's captain facing criminal charges. Had Terry been found guilty sooner and dealt with, he would have been made the example of. As it turns out Suarez got there first and is taking the rap. Terry's may be coming down the line.

The Suarez case is an incredibly complex one to pass judgment on, and until the full report of proceedings is published, we don't know if it contains facts which support Liverpool's or the FA's stance. But Liverpool, in their rage, have to tread carefully.

To reject outright that Suarez used an unacceptable word, even through ignorance, is to let down a proud tradition of zero-tolerance against racism that goes back to the days when John Barnes faced it on a weekly basis.

It leaves the club open to the charge that they don't believe the time has come for football to turn its anti-racist slogans into unequivocal actions.

Appeal to clear Suarez's name by all means, but drop the protest shirts and the siege mentality, because the issue is far too sensitive, and the club's reputation far too precious, for such an aggressive stance.

The scale of Suarez's punishment may seem unduly large but Liverpool FC, football and how we treat fellow human beings, is bigger than it.

Why watching the FA Cup 'with' Budweiser won't be everyone's glass of beer  

Fancy winning £3,000 for FREE this month? Play Mirror Football Streak for your chance to win cash prizes! Start predicting now!