Uruguay’s Luis Suarez was hit with the toughest ban imposed at a World Cup on Thursday as FIFA threw the book at one of soccer’s most talented but controversial players for biting an opponent.
He is out of the tournament with a nine-game suspension and a four-month total soccer ban, for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini. Suarez was suspended from all football-related activity for four months by the sport’s world governing body which also ruled he could not play in Uruguay’s next nine competitive games, immediately ending his involvement in the World Cup in Brazil. FIFA also fined the 27-year-old striker 100,000 Swiss francs ($111,000) after 10 hours of deliberations by its Disciplinary Committee. The previous longest World Cup suspension was in 1994 against Italy’s Mauro Tassotti, who broke Luis Enrique’s nose with his elbow.
