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An anti-racism chief has called for Liverpool to be charged over Luis Suarez affair
Piara Powar of FARE is unhappy with Liverpool's response to Suarez's suspension
Suarez was banned for eight matches after being found guilty of using racist language
The head of a football anti-racism group has called for the English Football Association to charge Liverpool with bringing the game into disrepute over the club’s response to Luis Suarez’s eight-match ban for using racist language at Patrice Evra.
On the day that Suarez issued a brief apology over the incident, Piara Powar, executive director of European football’s anti-discrimination body FARE, spoke of his disappointment at Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish’s attitude to the suspension.
“Kenny Dalglish’s comments over the affair have been undignified and their reaction has damaged the club’s brand across the world,” Powar told the Professional Footballers’ Association’s official website.
Suarez gave ‘unreliable’ evidence
“This is a lack of respect for the governing body by Liverpool and the FA should charge them and manager Kenny Dalglish.”
Powar continued: “Liverpool have been too keen to support their man and in doing so have whipped up a sense of paranoia amongst their fans.
“For the club to be so aggressively militate against what looks to most people a considered judgment from the English FA leads to a potential for anarchy.”
The comments came after Suarez issued a brief apology on the official Liverpool website, saying: “I admitted to the FA commission that I said a word in Spanish once and only once.
“I told the panel members that I will not use it again on a football pitch in England. I never, ever used this word in a derogatory way and if it offends anyone then I want to apologize for that.”
Suarez pointedly did not apologize to Evra, or mention the Manchester United defender in his statement, prompting Lord Ouseley, the chairman of British football’s anti-racism group Kick It Out, to call the apology “lamentable.”
“Suarez’s attempt at a belated apology is nothing short of lamentable,” Ouseley told the Guardian newspaper.
“I cannot believe that a club of Liverpool’s stature, and with how it has previously led on matters of social injustice and inequality, can allow its integrity and credibility to be debased by such crass and ill-considered responses.”
Although Liverpool decided not to appeal against Suarez’s suspension, Dalglish has publicly expressed his disappointment over the ruling and questioned the FA’s reasoning for its ruling.
Suarez’s Liverpool teammates also courted controversy before it was announced, publicly supporting the Uruguay striker by wearing t-shirts bearing his name prior to the match against Wigan.