Suárez: the bad things I have been through are in the past

Luis Suárez has claimed that he is on the “right path” to becoming a reformed character having sought help to cure his “impulse” to bite people – but the Barcelona striker remains steadfast in his refusal to accept being labelled a racist over the 2011 incident with Patrice Evra.



Suárez, who is set to make his Barcelona debut against Real Madrid on Saturday night, revealed that he has been seeing a therapist to cure his biting problem in an exclusive interview with the Guardian and admitted that he understood the uproar caused by his bite on Giorgio Chiellini during Uruguay’s 1-0 victory over Italy at the World Cup, which led to him being banned from competitive football for four months.



“I think all the bad things I have been through are in the past,” Suárez said. “I believe I am on the right path now, dealing with the people who can help me, the right kind of people.



“Everyone has different ways of defending themselves. In my case, the pressure and tension came out in that way. There are other players who react by breaking someone’s leg, or smashing someone’s nose across their face. What happened with Chiellini is seen as worse. I understand why biting is seen so badly.”



Suárez said that he had “no desire” to speak to anyone in the aftermath of the match against Italy. Fifa initially banned the 27-year-old from all football-related activity for four months and he was unavailable when Uruguay were knocked out of the World Cup by Colombia, although the court of arbitration for sport later ruled that he was able to train with his Barcelona team-mates and take part in friendly matches following an appeal. However, he has not played competitively since June and Barcelona have been unable to select him since his £75m move from Liverpool.



The clash with Chiellini was the third time Suárez has bitten an opponent: he had previously been banned for biting PSV Eindhoven’s Otman Bakkal in 2010 and Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic in 2013. He put each incident down to a momentary loss of control but added that he quickly realised what he was doing and pulled away. “Yes, it is like an impulse, like a reaction,” Suárez said. “Almost as if you realise straight away.”



However, Suárez once again denied that he deserved to be banned for eight matches and fined £40,000 in December 2011 after he was found guilty of racially abusing Evra during Liverpool’s match against Manchester United that October and is adamant that the Football Association punished him without proof. Suárez said that he called Evra “negro” once but justified it by saying that it is a common term in Uruguay.



“I know I was wrong with the biting and the diving but I was accused of racism without any proof,” Suárez said. There were lots of cameras, but no evidence. It hurts me the most that it was my word against theirs.



“Every culture has its way of expressing itself, and that’s a word people in Uruguay use all the time, whether somebody’s black or not black. It gets used a lot without those connotations, and that’s why it is completely different to how it is expressed in England, no?”



Suárez insisted that his intent was not to insult Evra. “No, not at any time,” he said. “I just said: ‘Why, negro?’ and it was just like asking: ‘Why?’ These are things that footballers say, that happen all the time.”