Suarez: Charged As Being Racist On One Man's Word

Suarez at Alder Hey with Martin Kelly...

If i called you a murderer and you said you weren't one but then you were sent to jail, you'd be pretty miffed I'd imagine? You'd want to see some evidence, some reasoning, something other than one persons word against another and the fact that you admitted to having a spade in your shed.

The spade in this case of you telling the truth translates as Suarez's admission to using the word "negrito". A word in his homeland of Uruguay which can be translated to "pal" or "mate". To Evra's ears of course, the word had such similarities to the n-word that he must have been convinced he was being racially abused but Evra of course has done this before.

Evra has accused Chelsea staff before and was proven to be exaggerating. This for some reason though appeared to play no part in the hearing whereas Suarez's background and angst powered incidents within football were sufficient enough to portray a character supposedly able to make racist remarks.

With nobody else on the pitch in a Liverpool or a Manchester United shirt giving statements. No officials including the referee fully hearing the conversation (I will mention Marriner's quotes shortly) and importantly no video or audio recordings of the conversation between the two players, it does pose the question; How was there enough evidence to charge a man with such a serious complaint?

Referee Andre Marriner said in his statement that he heard Evra say to Suarez "Don't touch me, you South American." to which Suarez replied "Por que? (why) negro." Marriner also went on to say that Evra when shown a yellow card later in the match said "You're only booking me because I'm black."

Luis Suarez as mentioned in the club statement is from a mixed race background, a grandfather who is black, Uruguayan team mates who are black, Ajax team mates whilst he was in the Netherlands who were black. I'm not saying this means he is immune from being a racist or using racist language but you would feel that this would support his character in a hearing where there is a substantial lack of evidence?

If his incidents within football were used against him, why were his family relations, friends plus his charity work involving the solidarity in sport between people from different backgrounds ignored?

Suarez undoubtedly would need to be spoken to about his use of native language in England. But in my eyes using a word whilst speaking in Spanish to a player which means "mate" is not so hard to believe. I personally end sentences with "mate" in bouts of anger or when I'm being patronizing so i find it easy enough to believe that Suarez may have done the same.

The FA made it clear in their opening statement that they accepted that Luis Suarez was not racist and they also pointed out that Patrice Evra himself in his written statement said ‘I don’t think that Luis Suarez is racist’.  

Yet Suarez has still been charged with "racially abusing" Patrice Evra. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but i wasn't aware that there was a number of times you could racially abuse someone before you were classed as a racist. The FA, however they wish to word it are portraying Luis Suarez as being a racist and once again i will point out with a substantial lack of evidence.

This case was always going to be especially difficult due to the cultural differences and semantics around the word Suarez has admitted to using but in my honest opinion, i don't think Suarez has done anything wrong and unfortunately, until i see or hear something with my own eyes and ears, I'm going to have to stick to my guns.

May i make it clear that i am in no way condoning racism. Racism is a horrible stain on the sport of football and we have come very far in recent years in stamping it out and believe me, if i had full proof that Suarez or any other player for that matter was racist, my support for them would be cut off immediately.

I'd also like to make clear that i am in no way making this a Liverpool versus Manchester United argument or an Evra versus Suarez fight. Racism is an extremely serious matter and it shouldn't matter, who, what club or what sport it occurs in. The fact is that given the details i know, it wouldn't matter if it was a Liverpool player, an England player, a United player or a Sunday League player, i would still be in support of the accused due to the lack of evidence and the fact that the accuser has accused before and been found wrong.

I did this post in order to air some of my views instead of posting them over Twitter in a million tweets. I fully respect the fact that we can't all agree and there are bound to be different opinions on this case and i hope you take this post in the best possible manner. I'm not here to stir anything up, i am simply writing about a current topic that i feel needed to be covered on the blog.