Maradona slams Suarez punishment

Argentina legend Diego Maradona has blasted FIFA’s punishment of Luis Suarez as “shameful”.

Suarez was banned for four months from all football-related activity and is suspended for Uruguay’s next nine competitive international appearances after biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini at the FIFA World Cup.

Uruguay qualified for the last 16 of the Brazil showpiece with a 1-0 win over Italy on Tuesday, but the result was overshadowed by Suarez’s actions, the third time in four years that he has sunk his teeth into an opposition player.

Maradona, himself no stranger to controversy throughout his glittering career, showed support for Suarez in a television appearance and wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the message ‘Luis, we are with you.’

And he also slammed football’s governing body for the hefty suspension.

“The FIFA sanction is shameful, they have no sensitivity towards the fans,” Maradona said on television, as quoted by The Guardian.

“They might as well handcuff him and throw him in Guantanamo (prison Guantanamo Bay).

“It hurts that they have cut short the career of a lad who is a winner. It’s an excessive suspension, FIFA cannot talk about morals to anyone.

“Suarez didn’t kill anyone. This is an unjust punishment, the act of an incredible mafia.”