"We are extremely disappointed Luis Suarez did not shake hands with Patrice Evra before yesterday's game. The player told us beforehand that he would, but then chose not to do so.
He was wrong to mislead us and wrong not to offer his hand to Patrice Evra. He has not only let himself down, but Kenny Dalglish, his team mates and the Club. It has been made absolutely clear to Luis Suarez that his behaviour was not acceptable.
Luis Suarez has now apologised for his actions which was the right thing to do. However, all of us have a duty to behave in a responsible manner and we hope that he now understands what is expected of anyone representing Liverpool Football Club." Ian Ayre Managing Director of Liverpool Football Club.
Ian Ayre, Tom Werner, John Henry and FSG finally succumbed to the pressure. They decided that enough was enough. Liverpool Football Club couldn't have it's name dragged through the mud any more. In response to the nation wide the media shit storm that has enveloped the club (because of a handshake no less), Liverpool's top brass decided that the damage being done to their 'global brand' was too great and did a complete 180 degree turn on the man they have steadfastly defended for the past 5 months.
Liverpool yesterday went hat in hand to Manchester United, the F.A and the vultures in the press and begged for mercy. No more of this, please. We're in the wrong, we admit it, please stop hammering us. The Twitter consensus was that Liverpool had finally done the right thing and had begun to move on from this whole ugly affair. The national journalists offered up faint praise and a plethora of smug 'I told you so' articles. Luis Suarez, the villain of the piece had damaged the club's image almost to the point of no return and now the wheels are set in motion for his departure in the summer. Everyone is a whole lot happier.
Except for the supporters who have constantly stood by Luis Suarez for good reason and undoubtedly, the player himself. The apology offered up on liverpoolfc.tv by 'Suarez' was certainly not his own. I expected no apology from Luis and frankly I didn't want one. Admittedly Suarez could have just offered a token shake of the hand and tried to move on with the whole affair but he decided not to. It was his choice. Why should he have shaken Patrice Evra's hand if he didn't want to? He believes that his image has been unfairly ruined by that man, that his career is potentially in tatters because of Evra's lies. He declined the hand shake and good for him. He knows the lies that man told and wants nothing to do with him. But this isn't just about a handshake.
The problem Suarez has faced all along was that no one at the club or in the main stream media put forward his side of things. He and club kept silent on their reasons for criticising the F.A's guilty verdict. No one stood up and explained why he was unrepentant and disagreed with the F.A investigation. Liverpool Football Club stood by him but they did so in a manner that was perplexing to the average man on the street who was unaware of the facts surrounding the case. I'm not going to repeat the reasons why that F.A report was a joke but the fact is that most people simply picked up their papers December 20th, read that he had been found guilty and subsequently saw Liverpool defending a man branded as a racist in extremely aggressive ways with little in the way of explanation. Suarez has been made out to be some kind of malevolent megalomaniac who believes he is above the law and can do what he wants when in reality he simply rejects the findings of a ludicrous report carried out by 3 men in suits that found him guilty of racism.
I've tried to let this whole situation pass me by but with the re emergence of it in light of 'handshakegate' I can't help myself. The thing that bothers me is the ignorance of people regarding the whole situation. Most of the people passing comments on Suarez on their Twitter feeds and Facebook statuses have about as much knowledge of the initial verdict as I do of string theory. They know only that Suarez was found guilty, Liverpool defended him and that he then declined a handshake from the man he had racially abused.
Throw in Mr. Alex Ferguson's deplorable and hilariously hypocritical post-match comments and suddenly it seemed that everyone in the country (and indeed, beyond) was on the same page; Suarez was scum. We had the New York Times demanding that John Henry act on the situation to salvage Liverpool's reputation, Gordon Taylor saying Suarez had made him 'sick to his stomach' and we even had George Galloway demanding that Suarez be deported! Nothing like a good old fashioned world wide witch hunt is there?
The moment Suarez declined the handshake we all knew this was coming of course, but I expected and demanded a reaction from Liverpool Football Club. I wanted them to come out all guns blazing, lay all their cards on the table and accept the repercussions. Standing up for what you believe in is never easy when almost everyone is against you but I wanted LFC to come out and blast Ferguson's comments and lay the whole thing bare. Come out with a press conference, an official statement, whatever, just explain why we are standing by Luis Suarez. Let the public know why we reject the F.A's verdict and why Kenny Dalglish has backed Suarez all the way. No one at Liverpool believed he was guilty in the first place and with good reason but those reasons aren't known by Joe Public. If you don't believe me go and ask one of the neutral football fans who have hammered him on your twitter feed this weekend about exactly what Suarez was found guilty of and the 'proof' against him. I guarantee they won't have the correct answers.
Liverpool we're left with two choices. Back down, blame Luis Suarez for not 'doing the honourable thing' and give the baying masses what they wanted by publicly criticising him or they could stand up for what they have believed in all along and fight to clear his name regardless of the merciless mud slinging from all corners. Unfortunately they took easy way out and threw Luis Suarez to the wolves in order to try and salvage their image. From the owner's position's they have a worldwide brand that is being damaged and they could stand to lose a lot of money and have decided to try and protect it by finally bringing an end to this circus. I understand that but morally I cannot condone it.
There are reasons they went this far to defend Luis Suarez and instead of making those reasons explicitly clear to the nation they have done what Suarez refused to do on Saturday and backed down. If Liverpool Football Club's top brass had the fortitude of their number 7 they would now have a club in the eye of a perfect storm fighting off criticism from every angle but at least they'd be being true to themselves. At least they'd be the Liverpool Football Club that their fans would recognise instead of a global brand desperately trying to appease it's enemies via the public sacrifice of it's most important player.
'You'll Never Walk Alone' must seem like an ironic choice of club anthem to Luis Suarez after yesterday.
I think what's important to consider is that despite the fact that they had backed him thus far, he could have solved things on Saturday but instead worsened them. Yes, he can continue his fight and shouldn't have to shake his hand and I agree about Evra's comments bringing him into disrepute. However, for me it comes back to one other Liverpool tradition, that "no player is bigger than the club". If the club's reputation is tarnished, that is a far greater tragedy.
ReplyDeleteHe could have put it bed yes, but the way the club have dealt with this is amateurish. They should have got Suarez' side of the story out there to the masses and if indeed he did change his mind at the last minute and not shake hands then that could have been dealt with internally. I like that he apologised to Kenny, fair enough, just don't like the way the club have basically hung him out to dry.
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