2014 FIFA World Cup

[brenchill]

He turned up at Spurs with a big fat cigar hanging out his mouth, holding a mini-gun in one hand with Old Glory draped over his back.

[brenchill]

KPB and Muntari have been sent home from the Ghana squad.

[Lineker]

Boateng - the perennial prat.

[METALMAN]

Oh, Ghana.

[King Ellis]

A statement on the Ghana FA website reads: "The decision was taken in the wake of his unprovoked physical attack on an executive committee member of the GFA and a management member of the Black Stars, Mr Moses Armah on Tuesday 24 June 2014 during a meeting."

What in the blue hell? This tied to their bonuses, perhaps? I saw something about like $3m being wired over to pay the Ghana squad.

[brenchill]

I'm on my phone so I can't pull up the article. One of them slapped a member of the selection committee.

[Nerf]

Probably the most balanced thoughts I've seen on the Suarez incident so far, from the Tomkins Times:

Luis Suarez bit someone, which is wrong. It’s not nice to see. But he didn’t maim them, or rape them, or kill them. No-one was seriously hurt, or was ever going to get seriously hurt. You shouldn’t bite someone on a football pitch. But one football pundit – Danny Mills – said that Suarez deserves locking up for life. Even the sickest criminals rarely get such a sentence. Had he still been alive, even Jimmy Saville wouldn’t have got a life sentence, and he raped little girls and allegedly had sex with corpses.

People find biting disgusting, and maybe it is; but once we start getting onto the subject of ‘disgusting’ then everyone is different. I find eating insects disgusting, but in some countries it’s a staple. I don’t find eating parts of a cow disgusting, people from other cultures (and vegetarians) do. And yet in Britain we’re not disgusted by a deliberately-swung elbow to break nose, jaw or cheek.

Biting is a primal instinct, something children do and then usually grow out of. And yet so too is forming a gang – a witch hunt, if you will, dating back well before the existence of witches – to drive the outsider out of town.

Someone noted in the comments section of TTT that if John Terry had done this we’d be up in arms. And he was right – we probably would; because John Terry is only not part of our tribe, he’s seen (as captain of a rival club) as a threat to it. We’d have got it all out of perspective, because what’s better than John Terry getting a two-year ban for some low-key violence? We’d have been high on the scent of blood, readying our pitchforks and sharpening our sense of moral outrage.

Here’s a thought. Ex-Premier League striker Marlon King gets an easier time in England than Luis Suarez. He’s not as famous, obviously, but he doesn’t elicit the same tribal responses because he’s English, and doesn’t play for such a high profile club. He’s certainly not a threat to Premier League sides, or the English national team; he’s merely a threat to the general public.

King is now back in jail, serving another 18-month term, but was still playing in the Championship last season. Coventry, Birmingham and Sheffield United all employed him despite his record as a woman-beater, police-assaulter and sexual offender. Then there’s Lee Hughes, who killed someone with dangerous driving, and later played for a number of professional clubs. And yet I expect a fair few fans of all those clubs are amongst the millions up in arms as Suarez’s bite.

Plenty of footballers have (allegedly) been involved in gang-rapes, assaults, match-fixing (that defrauds thousands of paying customers and thousands of betting punters), and other far more serious incidents. They may not happen on the pitch, but they still get to play football without mass hysteria following them around. Suarez is part of the “dirty foreigner” tribe, and a target for anyone in the upright, moral English tribe.

Edited June 26, 2014 by Nerf

[brenchill]

You think that's balanced? Looks like complete drivel to me.

[stokeriño]

Citing "Marlon King gets an easier time in England than Luis Suarez" when he was sent to prison is fucking ridiculous. What's he complaining about - that we're not still talking about it months later?

[Nerf]

Yes. Suarez is in the wrong, but the witch hunt is stupid. That's the most logical response I've seen so far, amongst everyone either being pro-Suarez or anti-Suarez.

There can be middle ground here, but people don't appear to be willing to be a part of that.

[brenchill]

There's no witch hunt. He should be punished. How can you argue against that?

[stokeriño]

I should start every opinion I voice with the prefix "keep in mind, Danny Mills is the biggest idiot alive, so on the basis that what I'm about to say isn't something he has also said, naturally it will be completely irrefutable".

[Gazz]

It's not really balanced when it's calling everybody who criticises Suarez a racist.

Talk of a prison sentence is a bit silly, but he was banned for 10 games for a previous offence, so this offence should carry a punishment of greater magnitude than the last.

What's the middle ground? He was seen, by millions on live television, biting a fellow professional. He's bang to rights, anyone defending his actions is either in denial or delusional.

I'm going to assume the 'middle ground' allows him to play for Liverpool from the start of the season.

[TCO]

Probably the most balanced thoughts I've seen on the Suarez incident so far, from the Tomkins Times:

Luis Suarez bit someone, which is wrong. It’s not nice to see. But he didn’t maim them, or rape them, or kill them. No-one was seriously hurt, or was ever going to get seriously hurt. You shouldn’t bite someone on a football pitch. But one football pundit – Danny Mills – said that Suarez deserves locking up for life. Even the sickest criminals rarely get such a sentence. Had he still been alive, even Jimmy Saville wouldn’t have got a life sentence, and he raped little girls and allegedly had sex with corpses.

People find biting disgusting, and maybe it is; but once we start getting onto the subject of ‘disgusting’ then everyone is different. I find eating insects disgusting, but in some countries it’s a staple. I don’t find eating parts of a cow disgusting, people from other cultures (and vegetarians) do. And yet in Britain we’re not disgusted by a deliberately-swung elbow to break nose, jaw or cheek.

Biting is a primal instinct, something children do and then usually grow out of. And yet so too is forming a gang – a witch hunt, if you will, dating back well before the existence of witches – to drive the outsider out of town.

Someone noted in the comments section of TTT that if John Terry had done this we’d be up in arms. And he was right – we probably would; because John Terry is only not part of our tribe, he’s seen (as captain of a rival club) as a threat to it. We’d have got it all out of perspective, because what’s better than John Terry getting a two-year ban for some low-key violence? We’d have been high on the scent of blood, readying our pitchforks and sharpening our sense of moral outrage.

Here’s a thought. Ex-Premier League striker Marlon King gets an easier time in England than Luis Suarez. He’s not as famous, obviously, but he doesn’t elicit the same tribal responses because he’s English, and doesn’t play for such a high profile club. He’s certainly not a threat to Premier League sides, or the English national team; he’s merely a threat to the general public.

King is now back in jail, serving another 18-month term, but was still playing in the Championship last season. Coventry, Birmingham and Sheffield United all employed him despite his record as a woman-beater, police-assaulter and sexual offender. Then there’s Lee Hughes, who killed someone with dangerous driving, and later played for a number of professional clubs. And yet I expect a fair few fans of all those clubs are amongst the millions up in arms as Suarez’s bite.

Plenty of footballers have (allegedly) been involved in gang-rapes, assaults, match-fixing (that defrauds thousands of paying customers and thousands of betting punters), and other far more serious incidents. They may not happen on the pitch, but they still get to play football without mass hysteria following them around. Suarez is part of the “dirty foreigner” tribe, and a target for anyone in the upright, moral English tribe.

What a load of nonsense. Nobody is claiming he's worse than a murderer or a rapist or any other criminal conviction. Picking out one throwaway comment by Danny Mills as a basis tp defend Suarez and claim a witch hunt is ludicrous. King and Hughes committed crimes outside of football and were punished accordingly.

There is no witch hunt, Suarez is a repeat offender of a vicious act on the football pitch, he should be punished with an appropriately long ban from football. That's all.

[Rich]

That's all fine and dandy Nerf, but putting it in to perspective as you have done still doesn't make me think Suarez deserves anything less than a lengthy ban from all kinds of football.

[brenchill]

FIFA won't want to ban him anyway. At the very worst he will get banned for the rest of the WC.

[lanky316]

Citing "Marlon King gets an easier time in England than Luis Suarez" when he was sent to prison is fucking ridiculous. What's he complaining about - that we're not still talking about it months later?

Especially when one of the myriad of problems Coventry have was their own fans boycotting the club for allowing him near the club after what he'd done.

I especially like the accusations of racism when... Oh wait no, Liverpool fans don't believe Suarez would do something of the sort. They barely want to accept he bit people... three times....

[9 to 5]

People felt the same way about Joey Barton, that far-flung foreigner upon our shores.

[Gazz]

If they've got any sense given the bad press they've had constantly for what feels like forever, they'll make an example of him.

[brenchill]

That Beckham fella wasn't very popular for awhile either.