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Suarez ban upheld

August 14, 2014

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has upheld Luiz Suarez's four-month playing ban for biting an opponent at a World Cup match. According to the ruling however, he is now allowed to train at his new club Barcelona.

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Luis Suarez in court in Lausanne
Image: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images

In Lausanne on Thursday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said that Suarez's ban for nine competitive Uruguay matches remains in place, in addition to his club ban.

Suarez, Uruguay's football federation the AUF and Barcelona appealed the sanctions imposed by the football world governing body FIFA after the player bit Italy's Giorgio Chiellini on the shoulder during a World Cup game. It was the third biting offence of his career.

FIFA turned down his first appeal and the case went to the CAS where Suarez was present at a hearing in Lausanne, Switzerland, last Friday (9 August). The international ban makes him ineligible for the 2015 Copa America, while the club-level suspension runs until October 25.

Barcelona's first Spanish league match is on August 24 and the Champions League starts in mid-September.

The AUF and Barcelona said that the ban imposed by FIFA was too harsh, but the CAS only named the general ban from all football activities "excessive" because it would also affect his play after the suspension. The CAS said the match ban itself was "proportionate to the offence committed."

Suarez was a Liverpool player at the time of the biting incident but has since joined Spanish club Barcelona for a fee estimated to be 81 million euros ($108.48 million) by local media.

al/rc (dpa, Reuters)