Luis Suarez Ban

Luis Suarez banned for 9 matches, 4 months over biting:

Fifa on Thursday banned Uruguay striker Luis Suarez for nine international matches and barred him from all football activities for four months for biting an Italian opponent. The heaviest punishment ever inflicted on a player at a World Cup finals effectively booted Suarez out of the tournament in shame following his clash with Italy's Giorgio Chiellini on Tuesday. 
It is the third time that the 27-year-old Liverpool forward, one of the most brilliant footballers in the world, but also one of the most temperamental, has been banned for biting an opponent. "Such behaviour cannot be tolerated on any football pitch, and in particular not at a Fifa World Cup when the eyes of millions of people are on the stars on the field," said Fifa disciplinary committee chairman Claudio Sulser in a statement. The nine match ban would be effective immediately, ruling him out of Uruguay's World Cup second round match on Saturday against Colombia, Fifa spokeswoman Delia Fischer said.

As part of the ban on football activities, Suarez will not be allowed into a stadium for four months. He was also fined 100,000 Swiss francs (82,000 euros, $112,000).



Fifa said that Suarez was told of the ban on Thursday. Uruguayan officials had previously insisted there was not enough evidence to take action against him.

Suarez bit Chiellini during Uruguay's 1-0 win over Italy in World Cup Group D on Tuesday.

The referee did not immediately see the incident but FIFA ordered an inquiry straight after the match following protests by Chiellini, who claimed he was bitten and who showed off teeth marks on his shoulder. Images of the bite spread on the internet.

Suarez had initially shrugged off the incident. "These are just things that happen out on the pitch. It was just the two of us inside the area and he bumped into me with his shoulder," Suarez told Uruguayan television.

Suarez was dubbed 'the cannibal of Ajax' after he bit PSV Einhoven's Otman Bakkal shoulder in a Dutch league game in November 2010. Suarez was later handed a seven game ban.

In April 2013, he bit Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic's on the arm in a Premier League match. He was given a 10 game suspension for that offence.

The Uruguayan has also been in trouble over on the field comments. He hurled racial abuse at Manchester United's Patrice Evra during a Premier League game in October 2011.

The English FA banned him for eight matches and fined him 40,000 pounds. He refused to shake hands with Evra when the two teams met later that season.

His ban will run until the end of October, meaning he would miss around two months of the 2014/15 Premier League season.