Top Stories

Monday Kickoff: Suarez issues apology, McCarthy sacked by Wolves and more

BPI_MancUnitvLive.eiv9

Photo by ISIphotos.com

By JOHN BOSCHINI

The fallout and reaction from Luis Suarez' handshake snub of Patrice Evra continues a couple of days after the latest incident between the Liverpool striker and Manchester United fullback.

Suarez issued a brief written apology for not shaking Patrice Evra's hand prior to Liverpool's loss to Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday, but lingering tensions between the two camps makes it unlikely that the situation is anything close to being put in the past.

The Uruguayan striker, who was banned eight matches for racially abusing the French defender, had reportedly told Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish that he would shake Evra's hand. The snub was a sour beginning to what turned out to be a testy affair.

Suarez apologized Sunday in a statement released through the club saying "I have spoken with the manager since the game at Old Trafford and I realize I got things wrong. I've not only let him down, but also the club and what it stands for and I'm sorry. I made a mistake and I regret what happened."

Sir Alex Ferguson had added strong words to the conversation in his post-match comments, in which he blasted Suarez for his actions.

"Suarez is a disgrace to Liverpool Football Club," Ferguson told reporters. "That player should not be allowed to play for Liverpool again. It could have caused a riot. I was ­really disappointed in that guy. For a club with their history, I’d get rid of him, I really would."

The Scottish manager did speak out against Evra's exuberant celebration in front of Suarez after the match calling it "a mistake." Dalglish, who skipped his usual postgame press conference, said his player was "bang out of order" and Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre derided his player's actions, saying they were "unacceptable."

The Professional Footballer's Association got involved with chief executive Gordon Taylor calling on Liverpool's American owners from Fenway Sports Group to intervene. Even British Prime Minister David Cameron is considering taking action to stem the hostility.

According to reports, the FA is not going to sanction either Manchester United or Liverpool for what happened, but that doesn't mean potential negative consequences don't linger. Liverpool jersey sponsor Standard Chartered entered into discussions with the club in the aftermath of Saturday's actions to convey the company's disappointment.

Here are some more stories to kick off your week:

WOLVES SACK MCCARTHY

Mick McCarthy is out as manager of Wolverhampton.

The Irish manager was shown the exit after Wolverhampton's humiliating 5-1 home loss to West Brom, ending his five-and-a-half-year spell at the helm of the club.

After picking up only 14 points in the last 22 matches, there was serious discontent among the Wolves faithful. The club's next game is against high-flying Newcastle on Feb. 25 and former West Ham boss, Alan Curbishley, has been tipped as the favorite to succeed McCarthy at Wolves. Curbishley has said he would be open to the job should Wolves express interest.

TEVEZ ON BRINK OF CITY RETURN

About £1.2 million in fines and nearly as many headlines later, Carlos Tevez looks set to return to Manchester City tomorrow.

The Argentinian striker has been AWOL for the better part of the season, after initially failing to come on as a substitute in the club's Champions League loss to Bayern Munich earlier in the season.  

Tevez has since been fined multiple times, reprimanded by the club and shopped around by City in an effort to move the troubled player on, but nothing has lined up and now he is faced with making peace with Roberto Mancini. Tevez had initially launched an appeal to the Premier League about his situation in Manchester, but he reportedly willing to drop the appeal and help the club move in on a coveted EPL title.

Tevez is flying back to England from Argentina today to engage in talks with Mancini.

HERTHA BERLIN FIRE SKIBBE

Michael Skibbe's has been fired as manager of Hertha Berlin following a 5-0 trouncing by Stuttgart. Skibbe's reign as manager lasted only five games, losing all five by a combined margin of 12-1 and Berlin now find themselves only two points clear of the relegation zone.

Berlin, which is home to U.S. international Alfredo Morales, will likely turn to a youth-team coach while they search for their third manager of the season. Morales had started each of the club's last three games under Skibbe.

——————

What action, if any, should be taken against Suarez? Did Wolves and Hertha Berlin make the right calls in firing their managers? Does Tevez have a chance of a smooth transition back into the City side?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. No, not true. The FA stipulates the pre-game handshake as a component of its ‘fair-play’ doctrine. Suarez cannot unilatterally choose to ignore it.

    That he comes out afterwards and ‘admits his mistake’ is cowerdly. I agree with Sir Alex, he should be gone for disgracing Liverpool.

    Reply
  2. Marco, you can play semantics with word “infraction”, and who technically actually committed one or not, according to the rule book, or whatever rules are in your imagination…but you’re clearing missing the most important simple fact that it was Suarez’s petulant act of refusing to shake hands that perpetuated, and compounded, this scandal at precisely the moment when it could have been totally squashed. Irresponsible, childish, arrogant, and unbelievably stupid on his part.

    Reply
  3. If he wanted to get on with the game he shouldve shook evras hand, or better yet apoligized back in october, because if he didnt intend to offend evra racially a simple ‘my bad i didnt mean it that way’ would have made this all go away

    Reply
  4. At this game, the only possibly infractions (that call for suspensions) were committed by Evra. Not shaking someone’s hand is a lot of things, but it’s not an infraction. The only thing keeping an honest review of Evra’s actions from taking place is Suarez past guilt. Will Evra and SAF be using this card all year? Kenny was completely outplayed by SAF in the media slant, by making the non-handshake the central point.

    Reply
  5. Calm down, buddy. Not making a point, just saying for anyone interested this is the best video, taken from a British post-game TV show, of the handshake event and the other a comprehensive video of Evra’s victory lap. Take a deep breath.

    Reply
  6. Suarez was suspended for eight games. Obviously he felt it was unjust. Despite immense pressure from his club and massive scrutiny from the media he opted not to shake the hand of the man he felt had wronged him. Like him or not but Suarez felt he could live better with a massive outcry against him than he would if he shook the hand of Evra.

    You can say Suarez is dumb, but dumb or not he had to know there would be immense backlash and still didn’t shake Evra’s hand. PD mentions Moral fiber??? That make me vomit. Suarez stood up for himself plain and simple. Get on with the game.

    Reply
  7. I don’t see how Evra is at fault here in the slightest. It’s quite clear that Suarez is a disgrace to Liverpool and that he needs to be removed. I don’t see how the FA could allow him to continue playing football in England.

    Reply
  8. Uhm, yeah, that video clearly shows Suarez snubbed Evra, what’s your point?

    Suarez shakes hands with the litte boy then immediately locks his eyes on the Goalkeeper and with one smooth motion carries his hand out past Evra to the goalie. If he was reaching for Evra then thought Evra had snubbed him his hand would have made two movements, it didn’t.

    Oh, and SUAREZ HAS ADMITTED HE SNUBBED EVRA. But then again, since he lied about not using racist language why should we believe him when he admits he snubbed Evra, right?

    Reply
  9. I quote Wynalda all the time:

    “Jim Rome can suck my ####!”

    “Those flares in the crowd look like the wildfires killing people in California.”

    “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I played for the national team.”

    (that last one was his first ever response to a viewer on FFF, a little old lady that called in unhappy with how the USMNT played in Costa Rica).

    Reply
  10. I think Both players are a disgrace and very ignorant, They could have easily caused a riot. Ferguson is right about that. yet I somehow would trust Suarez more than Evra…to me Evra is the real trouble he provoked all of this and made it even bigger than it is. There is a lot of hypocrisy and Suarez as a South American pays the price more so than say John Terry. Just because he’s South American he gets screwed. And Rio Ferdinand another hypocrite who probably wouldn’t act the way he did with J Terry even though it was Rio’s brother who was involved in the J Terry incident. Easy….let’s teach everyone an example screwing the sudaca guy

    Reply
  11. LFC care that he didn’t shake Evra’s hand. This whole story has been terrible and it’s going to deter racially abused players from coming forward, it’s really quite sad.

    Reply
  12. @John Boschini

    The quote you attribute to Kenny was towards a BBC reporter that suggested Suarez was to blame for the atmosphere during the game. It was the reason Kenny also issued an apology the next day.

    Reply
  13. Re: upcoming Wolves v. Newcastle match.

    Yes, the team that lost 5-1 this weekend is playing the “high flying” team which lost 5-0.

    Reply
  14. I think the bigger issue is that Suarez told his bosses that he would play nice and then did something else. Anyway, handshake aside, it’s just another example in a long line of examples that being a talented footballer doesn’t mean you have impeccable moral fiber. Don’t forget this is the same guy that kept Ghana from advancing in a world cup by impersonating a goalkeeper–perhaps the most unsportsmanlike thing I’ve ever seen yet perfectly legal. There are so many issues like this in soccer, diving, time wasting, goading players both physically and verbally, appealing for cards, feigning injury… the “win with any means necessary” mentality has played a huge part in getting Suarez (and many others) to superstar status, but it’s a terribly ugly side of the game. While it would give us all a lot less to talk about, addressing these grey areas of the game with post game video replay, fines and suspensions would I think go a long way toward improving the quality of the sport and most likely increase it’s popularity.

    I applaud the FA for drawing a line in the sand over comments that are tinged with racism, but it is a symptom of a larger cancer in the soccer culture: wins are more important that honesty (please don’t think I’m trying to imply racism isn’t a big problem…)

    Reply
  15. True, but becaues his refusal to shake Evra’s hand followed so closely Evra’s allegations of racism, it added fuel to the fire and kept the controversy going. The smartest thing for Suarez would have been to move on and try to punish United and Evra on the field, but he decided to snub Evra. Perphaps Suarez is a tool or perhaps he felt so strongly that Evra slandered him that he just could not force himself to shake Evra’s hand. We don’t know. However, the result of Suarez’s actions is the current focus on the handshake that did not happen, which keeps the rasism story alive.

    Reply
  16. If you really watch the video, Evra makes a weak little half-hearted attempt at a handshake himself.. never really extended his hand. Kinda childish on part of both guys

    Reply
  17. Interesting that none of Suarez actions yesterday warranted a suspension while two of Evra’s actions did, plus he nearly injured his teammate Rio with a wild charge at Suarez. SAF twisted this narrative and once again won over the FA and media. Don’t like either player, but there was no quid pro quo here. Evra may come back to bite SAF on his arse.

    Reply
  18. You know the English press will never let something like handshake go!

    I think what really made everyone mad was that both teams put out press releases that promised a handshake and that everyone would make up and than Suarez backed out.

    Reply
  19. I actually have no problems with Suarez not shaking Evra’s hand. Who cares? Evra made the handshake more than it was by freaking out and trying to pull Suarez back. And then that celebration after the match was absolutely embarrassing.

    And Sir Alex has a lot of gall to say another team’s player shouldn’t be allowed to play for something scandalous. Nothing beats Dwight York’s pornography scandal in ’98, or the dozen of United sex/rape scandals since then.

    Reply
  20. I just don’t see what the noise is all about. Obviously Suarez doesn’t thing highly enough of Evra to shake his hand so he didn’t. That’s his prerogative.

    Reply
  21. I don’t usually quote Eric Wynalda, but he was spot-on when he said “Luis Suarez may not be racist but he’s definitely not very intelligent.”

    Reply
  22. Whats worse? An apology ordered by the stuffy suits from Liverpool that everyone knows isn’t genuine in the least, or no apology at all?

    Reply
  23. The simple fct that this morning we are still talking about the Suarez racism story tells you how epically stupid he is for single-handedly keeping this story alive. Good thing he’s a good footballer, because Luis would be a tragic failure in Public Relations

    Reply

Leave a Reply to ted Cancel reply