BlueStar

Phew, that's OK then. Glad we found someone else who sends fake letters and can rest easy being sponsored by a company that preys on the poor, whose business model would be illegal in pretty much all the rest of the western world, and who get 50% of their profits from fines and charges - ie run a business which would be entirely unsustainable if they loaned money to people who are actually able to pay it back on time. Wonga are a worse class of bastards than most in an industry populated by its fair share, and also scummier than most of the characters who are in the game of sponsoring football teams. This is why they get more shit than most. Some of the hand wringing over their unfair treatment reminds me of the whole Suarez thing, bringing up Shearer stamping on someone 10 years ago as if everyone does this type of thing and it's so unfair people 'whaling' on Luis. Aside from anything else, their business is so dubious that a swipe of the pen in Westminster could completely cripple them by closing the loopholes they operate through and subjecting their industry to proper regulation. Which is not a particularly desirable trait for a long term sponsor to have.

http://i.imgur.com/Ev1UsFJ.png

Maybe we can replace Monty Magpie with Monty the Monitor Lizard.

fucking hell did they send pardle round to give his ma the treatment? "Is Pierre-Michel playing out?"

Just watch them briefly, until they go somewhere else.

It's OK lads, we're willing to try and hold on to him - not to keep him, of course, but to try and get more money for him http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/newcastle-united-hold-out-mathieu-7346148

FIFA didn't seem to know when they were asked, but then seemed to indicate he could still be transferred. Guess they could do all the groundwork between clubs, agents etc without him and then just rubber stamp it as soon as he's back, he can't play till then anyway.

Yeah, inflated prices of English players is terrible news for Newcastle, not like we sold an unproven English striker for 35 million fucking quid.

I'd imagine it at least affects Liverpool to the extent that having a four month world ban lowers the price of a player. Anyway, I thought Barca, like Liverpool, were a beacon of anti-racism, fair play and social justice?

Come on, not even criminals are subjected to punishments as extreme as being stopped from playing football for four months. They could at least reduce it to lethal injection.

Christ, just seen the video of that lad having his ear bitten off by another England fan Hope they charge him in Brazil.

Well, I'm sure they can just point out that alcohol and gambling ruin peoples lives and that will be the end of the matter.

B-but they're just the same as any other business or financial institution, they're all equally as good or bad as each other! Surely they've told the police that?

The guy's got a mental age of about 12, when kids are naughty in class and the other kids laugh at them they keep doing it. He's just returned to a heroes welcome in Uruguay. When he racially abused Evra, everyone wore t-shirts with him name and face on, the crowd, the other players. Usually you only do that for someone when they're retiring, or they've reached a massive milestone in their career, or they're ill and you want to show your love and support for them. When he was banned for biting someone last time, there were banners "One rule for Suarez, one rule for everyone else" portraying him as the real victim. You've got people gushing on RAWK about how he's a 'flawed genius' as if that makes him so cool and edgy and dreamy. Sagely quoting "No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness" and "There is a fine line between genius and insanity." as if his biting, eye-gouging, stamping and diving gives him the rugged anti-hero persona from which his footballing beauty grows. People are fiercely stating their support for him in a way they wouldn't if he was just a normal great player. You've got his national team manager fighting his corner, his fans backing him, Maradona coming out in support, everyone close to him telling him how badly treated he's been. The kind of attention he gets from it probably doesn't help him stop himself from doing it. If he was a Man U player, I'm sure Liverpool fans would hate him more than they've hated anyone in the game, ever. I'm pretty sure they'd even claim they wouldn't have him in their team, because he went against everything Liverpool stood for.

So, Liverpool have a player that they supported when he bit someone, claiming that the length of the ban was extreme and down to the FA and Premier League. He then doesn't learn his lesson and does it again. Liverpool now have a better chance of winning the league. Why should a team ever benefit when one of their players bites someone? Because why not? It's not like the punishment is going to cause Suarez to mend his ways, is it? Fucker's done it three times now. Everyone knows he's off his trolley, yet most clubs would still give their eye teeth for the bitey sod because he's so fucking good. So he's still going to earn millions. Other clubs aren't going to lose interest just because he once again proved he's as mental as everyone already knew he was… Suarez himself just gets to take an extended (paid) holiday. The punishment falls essentially on Uruguay and Liverpool, which—you would hope—is not really what was intended. Instead of banning him from games (which effectively only punishes his national and club sides), they should have fined him something painful (instead of half a week's wages) or forced him to play wearing a muzzle (well, forced him to seek professional help). If someone that are good at their job commits a crime, they should not be sent to jail because the punishment falls on their employers? Miss the point much? I said they should try to do something that punished the player more than his national/club side. Bans clearly aren't having the desired effect because the crazy bastard keeps doing it again. Yeah, bans aren't harsh enough, let him play in a few weeks instead. He's got more money than god, how much are you proposing fining him? Just grease the palm of FIFA enough and let him get on with it? Liverpool fans seem to have expended 20 times the words criticizing the ban than they have their player who's fucked them over, again, dragged their name through the mud, again. How about addressing that and see if that makes a difference when bans have failed?

He clearly enjoys playing football. So it's a punishment stopping him playing football. It also stops him fucking biting people for that period of time. The hope is he'll have learned his lesson by the time he comes back, but you're right he won't. But that means you punish him more, not less. Tough shit Liverpool, your fault for encouraging his behaviour. Why are you lot saying he should just get a much longer ban for Uruguay? Is that not unfairly punishing the other players, the manager, the fans? They didn't bite anyone. If you look back at these two seasons as the best chance you had for decades to win the league and it slipped away, you know who to blame. "Because why not?" is kind of my point. You buy players who play internationally and their international career can impact on your club positively or negatively. Playing at that level might improve them. They might be fatigued from the extra games. Their position on the world stage might increase their value. They might get dropped/their team might get knocked out and leave them with more time to devote to the club. Or they might bite someone, lie about it and get a world ban for 4 months. That's life. Because why not? Why is it fine for an incident in the match to help Liverpool, but not OK when it looks like it's going to hinder them, because it has nothing to do with them?

Had 38p in my account so put it on Chile to win both halves after the Brazil goal at 255/1.

"I was pushing him away with my teeth"

So, Liverpool have a player that they supported when he bit someone, claiming that the length of the ban was extreme and down to the FA and Premier League. He then doesn't learn his lesson and does it again. Liverpool now have a better chance of winning the league. Why should a team ever benefit when one of their players bites someone?

He's done it twice before and got serious bans for it, he's done it again, in the middle of FIFA's flagship competition, went down as if he was elbowed, shown no remorse, denied it, said it was just what happens and people should get over it, been backed by his manager, had a welcome home parade off the plane - and people go "B-but, that ban's really serious!" Of course it is. FIFA needed to punish Suarez, and the best way of doing that in a serious fashion was to stop him playing the game that he loves. Not just "OK, miss one game every few months or so for your country, now off you go to play in the most high profile competitions in the world in a few weeks time, banging in goals, getting your sponsored face on telly, running around and having a great time." That's like banning a naughty kid from watching telly in the living room and sending them to play on their Xbox in their bedroom. Suarez needed to be punished as an individual, Liverpool are the collateral damage from that. That's the risk you take for hiring and standing by a horrible cunt. You've certainly been willing to accept the benefits of it, I'm afraid you have to take the negatives as well. He'll do it again as well. They probably should have added a suspended life ban, it might be the only thing that saves him.

Have they even ever banned a player from league games before? Pinto was banned for am incident in a World Cup game in 2002 for 6 months, and I'm pretty sure that was global.

Motherfucking FIFA Biggest ban ever? There's been a lot worse than that. Have they even ever banned a player from league games before? Totally over the top. Obviously, he wants banning, like, but from fucking training? Your must be furious with him.

It's hard to tell, they keep locking threads about it on RAWK. The general tactic seems to be to avoid all discussion of the indecent and instead focus on players who stamped or headbutted someone ten years ago. Or quickly skip over 'yes he shouldn't have done it but...' before characterising any criticism or punishment of Suarez as wild eyed witchhunt implying he's worse than paedohilter.

Might as well just rename this thread "Transfers".

Will they will they want things like wages, agent payments and signing on fees, or will they work for apples?