NEWS:LUIS SUAREZ has issued a qualified apology for saying "negro" during his confrontation with Patrice Evra at Anfield and maintained he used the word once and not in the derogatory manner that resulted in an eight-match ban plus €48,000 fine for racist abuse.
The Liverpool striker was found to have used the word “negro” or “negros” seven times during his row with the Manchester United defender by an independent regulatory commission and missed the club’s 3-0 defeat at Manchester City on Tuesday having decided not to appeal against his subsequent punishment.
Both Suarez and Liverpool have been widely condemned for their reaction to the commission’s verdict. The Anfield club released two statements that questioned the integrity of the English Football Association and Evra, while their players and manager, Kenny Dalglish, wore T-shirts in support of Suarez at Wigan Athletic.
Suarez showed no contrition when reluctantly commencing his ban despite stating, on November 7th, that whoever was found to be “in the wrong” would have to apologise.
An apology finally came yesterday, though not directly to Evra, five days after the commission’s findings were made public in a 115-page document.
Suarez said: “I admitted to the commission that I said a word in Spanish once, and only once, and I told the panel members that I will not use it again on a football pitch in England. I never, ever used this word in a derogatory way and if it offends anyone then I want to apologise for that.”
While accepting Suarez’s punishment, albeit reluctantly, Anfield officials remain aggrieved at the procedures that led to the guilty verdict and intend to hold talks with the FA over changing the disciplinary process for future cases.
Dalglish, speaking in the aftermath of the defeat at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, claimed: “There’s a lot of things we’d like to say and a lot we could say but we would only get ourselves in trouble.”
That is believed to refer to Liverpool’s contention that Evra was guided through his witness statements by the FA while being allowed to watch footage of his confrontation with Suarez. The United defender did not, for example, recall being pinched by Suarez until after a review of the incident and that action formed a large part of the case against the Uruguayan.
The Liverpool striker’s request to study the same footage while submitting his statement, his club alleges, was refused. Suarez was subsequently described as giving “unreliable” and “inconsistent” evidence by the commission while Evra changed his initial allegation of being labelled a “nigger” by Suarez 10 times, and was deemed a credible witness.
Liverpool also claim that many of their submissions were dismissed by the commission or not included in the report.
Guardian Service
