Fifa official says Cheillini admitted he overreacted to Luis Suarez bite
FIFA appeals court vice president Fernando Mitjans has stated that Giorgio Chiellini confessed about overreacting to Luis Suarez’s bite during Italy’s group-stage game against Uruguay in the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
The Uruguayan striker was banned from appearing in any competitive football match for four match and was also handed a 9-game suspension by the FIFA authorities after biting the Italian defender on his shoulder. Uruguay won the game 1-0 and progressed into the knockout stages amidst much controversy.
However, Mitjans claimed that the striker’s prior incidents of biting opponents worked against him as Chiellini made the most out of it.
"When they asked the referee what happened, he insisted that he didn’t see anything. They asked Chiellini, who was the victim, and the victim said "sir, he didn’t do anything to me"," Mitjans told FOX Sports Radio Argentina.
"You know what Chiellini said? "It was a kiss that my girlfriend gave me and I did it to get him sent off".
"Chiellini didn’t travel to the hearing. He didn’t even answer the tribunal’s questions by mail. I was laughing, the Swiss couldn’t believe it.”
"It was like a kiss that my girlfriend gave me and I did it to get an advantage", he said. Ask the Uruguayans. They did not let me intervene because I was part of Conmebol and they preferred to keep me out of it. It was a very delicate topic," he added.
‘Fifa wrong to take Suarez’s previous cases into account’
Mitjans also claimed that Fifa was wrong to take into account Suarez’s previous cases of biting Otman Bakkal in 2010 during his time at Ajax and Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic in his Liverpool days nearly three years later when deciding the length of the striker’s suspension.
"You ask me, and I said it to them, it’s madness," he continued.
"Regulatory madness because they took into account previous actions. I want to state that the standards for sporting tribunals are not criminal standards. But they used criminal standards against Suarez.
"They took into account what he did in the Netherlands, what he did in England and what he did at the World Cup in Brazil. If it’s like that you would have players who would never play again."
Suarez joined Barcelona from Liverpool in the summer of 2014 after spending three seasons at the Anfield Arena. The 28-year-old won the treble with his new employers on his debut season itself and scored 23 goals across all competitions.