A terrible article about the Suarez incident

Before continuing with pictures and stories from the East, I just have to rant about an article I read last week. The article can be found here. But I've copied it below for the sake of inserting my comments.

FIFA should have banned Suarez from World Cup

By JOHN LEICESTER (AP)

JOHANNESBURG — Yet again, blatant cheating in soccer is not being adequately punished.

Ok, you can't really cheat in soccer. It's like you can't really cheat in baseball, or basketball. In the end, a ref makes a decision. Now, you could make illegal deals and buy the results of a game in a gambling scheme. That could be called cheating. You could pay the other team to let you win, that's cheating.

Uruguay forward Luis Suarez escaped with a one-match suspension from FIFA on Saturday for deliberately using his hands to slap away what would have been a certain match-winning goal for Ghana.

A one-match suspension isn't exactly an escape. Uruguay will miss one of their best players in the semifinals of the World Cup. A win could take them to their first cup final in more than half a century. Also, the phrase "deliberately using his hands to slap away a certain match-winning goal for Ghana" seems to explain it all. What, are you going to try to deter someone from preventing a certain match-winning goal for the other team by whatever means necessary?

So he'll miss the semifinal. Suarez will be back, suspension served, for the final or the third-place match, depending on how Uruguay fares.

That's how it works.

That is so wrong. FIFA should have sent him packing from the World Cup, deterred cheats by making an example of this one.

FIFA has every right to do this. But deter cheats by making an example? I think with a World Cup suspension or one-game suspension, Suarez or anyone else in his position would do the same thing without a moment's hesitation. He is a national hero back home in Uruguay.

"Foot" and "ball." It couldn't be any simpler. You were calling it "soccer" a minute ago. The most basic rule is no handling by anyone other than the goalkeeper, and Suarez slapped it in the face.

I'm pretty sure Luis Alberto Suarez knows the rules of the game and that he was breaking them.

FIFA can draw up as many fair play codes as it likes, they will remain dead letters as long as cheats are allowed to prosper. Thierry Henry was allowed to escape scot-free for his double handball that led to France, instead of Ireland, playing at this World Cup. FIFA flaccidly argued that its disciplinary panel couldn't punish the French striker because the referee and his officials did not spot his cheating during the game.

Ok, this has absolutely NOTHING to do with the Suarez case or fair play codes. If the ref had SEEN the Henry handball, Henry would have been ejected and the goal that resulted would have been discounted. This would have left the two teams TIED which means that France might have gone on to win anyway, not necessarily Ireland. Do I hate Henry? Of course. But kicking the player out of the competition is a bit stupid. They might have qualified anyway! Introduce replay to soccer/football for goals. If the ball goes into the goal, while the players are busy celebrating and going nuts, have a ref watch it again to make sure it is legit. If they see a blatant handball in the replay, they can take appropriate action as far as ejections and free kicks. And later, FIFA can tack on more punishment if it sees fit.

If the ref somehow hadn't seen Suarez's crime, that would be a huge problem. Like the one in the France-Ireland game. But when do you kick the player out? How intention must the handball be? Players will always take one for the team, and you won't deter them from that. Have a ref watch a replay, have FIFA look at it on a case by case basis. But whatever FIFA decides, it is not going to deter anything. It will only serve justice.

FIFA doesn't have that excuse this time. Referee Olegario Benquerenca did his job in showing Suarez the red card. FIFA should have done its duty by suspending Suarez for Uruguay's last two games.

What if there were three more games? Suspend him for those? Suspend him for the tournament? As a player, he did the best thing he could do and it involved intentionally violating the rules. There are professional fouls in the game. This is when someone intentionally commits a foul (and often earns a yellow card) in order to pause the game and give the defense time to get back. Fouling is against the rules, but it is a tactic. Does this mean that you want to suspend every player who commits an intentional foul? Are you going to have FIFA review every foul to see if it was intentional enough? How many instances in other sports is fouling or violating other rules used as a tactic? Only ALL THE TIME.

"Cheating is easy, but brings no pleasure," says FIFA's fair play code. But that is not true. Suarez will still have the pleasure of playing another World Cup match — a pleasure he stole from Ghana's players.

I'm beginning to think that John Leicester (the author of this nonsense) placed a lot of money on Ghana to win this one. Also, Gyan's missed penalty kick is more to blame for Ghana's fate I think.

Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez's assertion that Suarez's action was a natural reflex is nonsense.

I completely agree. The handball was intentional.

Suarez knew what he was doing. He took a calculated risk. The teams were tied at 1-1. It was the last minute of the match. Dominic Adiyiah's header was goal-bound for Ghana. So Suarez lifted both arms and pushed it away. He didn't even try to use his head or chest. Looking at the replay, it seems as though he might have been able to block it with his head, were he quick enough. He knew that the punishment for handling would be a penalty for Ghana. But that had to be better for Uruguay than losing to a last-gasp goal.

And the gamble paid off when Ghana's penalty-taker Asamoah Gyan thumped the crossbar with his shot. Suarez pumped his fists in celebration.

I think I would have pumped my fists, too. And breathed the biggest sigh of relief in the history of sighs of relief everywhere ever. I would have kissed the nearest decent-looking girl. I would have called everyone in my family. Then I would have bought a lottery ticket. Then I would have started shaking my booty like Shenaynay...

"I think I made the best save of the World Cup," he said afterward, tickled pink with himself.

Not my choice of words. I would say that he was happy with himself. His comment is kinda funny/ironic though right? Are you mad that he is happy about it? Wouldn't anyone be? I get it; you think he should be feeling regret about what he did. And you think that somehow FIFA can deliver to him that regret. Nonsense.

It would be wrong in the wake of Suarez's dishonesty to push FIFA for changes to the laws of the game so that referees could award goals that are illegally and deliberately blocked, even if they don't cross the line. Basketball awards points for such eventualities, punishing teams for swatting away a ball that is already starting to go in. Ice hockey also allows umpires to declare in certain cases that a goalward-bound shot was a goal, even if the puck did not go in.

If only soccer was like these other games!!!! In soccer, you can goal-tend... and defenders stop goals all the time. Defenders commit handballs all the time. The combination of the two is a little rarer, but it happens.

Asking similar of soccer referees is not the answer. They are already struggling to keep pace with all the action in the fast modern game. Asking them to also judge whether a goal would or would not have gone in had X, Y, or Z happened, or not happened, will guarantee bad calls. Instantly calculating ball trajectories and whether a hand stopped it from hitting the net is a job for technologies like Hawk-Eye, not overworked referees.

Agreed. Hawk-Eye technology is ready for the sport and should be implemented ASAP.

A better solution is deterrence. WHAT???? Come down harder on cheats. Ruin the rest of Suarez's World Cup like he ruined it for the Ghanaians and the millions of Africans who thought Adiyiah's header was about to carry them to the first semifinal for an African team.

At this point, you can't ruin Suarez's World Cup. Sorry.

Suarez said being sent off "was worth it."

Yeah, no shit. And it would have been worth it even if he was suspended the rest of the tournament.

FIFA could have proved him wrong. Instead, it proved him right.

The only way they could have "proved him wrong" would be to suspend him AND make the goal count. That would deter anyone. But then you have to analyze each case to see if it was intentional or whatnot. Soccer, unlike say, American Football, is generally against adding lots of new complicated rules. It's a simple game and that's what makes it beautiful.

In conclusion, I would like to say that FIFA could have suspended Suarez how they wanted. Would I be upset if he was knocked out of the rest of the tournament? No. But don't do it thinking that it will deter anything. Is "cheating" a rampant problem in soccer? No. Is Leicester a little bitter? Yes.