By Ewan Day-Collins

22nd December, 2011

Luis Suarez has been handed an eight match ban and a £40,000 fine by the FA this week for racially abusing Patrice Evra in a heated match between Liverpool and Manchester United. Yet, Liverpool FC, on their website, claim that not only will they stand by Suarez’s claim of not guilty, but they believe to have a found a potential issue in the evidence of the proceedings.
 
Liverpool, in a statement issued on Tuesday night, proclaim: “We find it extraordinary that Luis (Suarez) can be found guilty on the word of Patrice Evra alone when no-one else on the field of play – including Evra’s own Manchester United team mates and all the match officials – heard the alleged conversation between the two players”.
 
It is this problem that Liverpool will seek to exploit, desperate to retain their profligate goal scorer for the eight matches that his ban details. Of course, it may well not defend or prove Suarez’s innocence but, if they are correct, it could jeopardise the whole case for the FA.
 
Surely it sets a dangerous precedent if no secondary evidence is required to testify the declaration that a man could be found guilty of such a heinous crime. Despite Evra’s chequered past - his own integrity having previously been questioned by the FA after an altercation with a Chelsea grounds man, who was found to have no case to answer – this should bear no relevance to this current case. But the fact, according to Liverpool FC’s statement, that no definitive proof was provided and that Evra even stated that Suarez is “not a racist” seems less than conclusive.
 
I am all for the emphatic and unequivocal stand against racism that the independent panel made on Tuesday night. But, I am not for the integrity of a man being taken into account in a hearing such as this. Character judgements should not be made and, if found guilty, it should be with definitive and unquestionable evidence from a secondary source. Evra’s word, if this is the foundations of the decision, appears not to be a reliable source of evidence – no more so than hundreds of partisan Kop fans.
 
We have not been granted access to the wide range of camera angles that the panel had available. However, from the shots we have seen there appears no obvious racist slur – not as clear as that of John Terry who will faces a criminal court proceeding into alleged racist abuse towards Anton Ferdinand. I would be tentative about branding Suarez a racist for life on, according to Liverpool FC, biased evidence.
 
If Suarez is guilty he deserves all the punishment he can receive – an eight match ban the minimum he should be allocated. Yet, unless an incontestable piece of proof arises – Evra’s word not being that – this stand on racism is false. We cannot afford mistakes with the consequences being of this magnitude and importance.

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