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Luis Suarez: Liverpool striker accepts biting ban

Luis Suarez: Liverpool striker accepts biting ban

Liverpool striker Luis Suarez has accepted his 10-match ban for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic.

Luis Suarez: Liverpool striker accepts biting ban
Luis Suarez: Liverpool striker accepts biting ban

Suarez had already accepted a three-match suspension for violent conduct, but could have challenged the additional seven-game punishment.

Liverpool allowed Suarez to decide whether to appeal, although boss Brendan Rodgers has criticised the ban.

Contesting his original ban would have run the risk of Suarez’s suspension being increased.

The suspension begins immediately meaning Suarez will miss Liverpool’s final Premier League games of this season – against Newcastle, Everton, Fulham and QPR – and the first six domestic matches of the 2013-14 campaign.

Liverpool has said that they were “shocked” and “bitterly disappointed” by the severity of their striker’s punishment for the incident in the 2-2 draw at Anfield on Sunday, with Rodgers adding that the “punishment is against the man, rather than the incident”.

Rodgers had cited incidents involving Jermain Defoe, who was booked for biting Javier Mascherano in 2006, and Chester defender Sean Hessey, who was banned for five matches in the same year, in support of Suarez.

Suarez himself was banned for seven games when he was a player with Dutch side Ajax for biting PSV Eindhoven midfielder Otman Bakkal’s shoulder during a match in November 2010.

The Uruguay international, who apologised to Ivanovic for his “inexcusable behaviour”, wascriticised by Prime Minister David Cameron for setting “the most appalling example to young people in our country”.

Earlier in April, Fifa announced an investigation into an incident in which Suarez appeared to punch Chile defender Gonazalo Jara during an international match on 26 March.

Suarez’s suspension, along with a shoulder injury to Italian Fabio Borini, increases Liverpool’s reliance on Daniel Sturridge, who has scored six goals in 12 games since signing from Chelsea in January.

Rodgers has insisted that Suarez is “still very much part of our family and very much part of our future” despite speculation that the ban may prompt him to seek a move abroad.

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