“Do we expect more villains to be crowned in this World Cup? I mean, we had Luis Suarez last time…”
Little did Team 33 host Richard Chambers know it but on episode 2 of Newstalk’s Team 33 World Cup show, he had inadvertently hit upon the identity of 2014's ultimate villain.
Of course, none of us could have guessed that Luis Suarez would bite a player for the third time in his career, although that did not stop us speculating about the identity of the villain-to-be in 2014.
Daniel Kelly seemed to have a premonition about the outraged reaction that 2014’s villain would engender, when he mused: “We’ve no idea who it is, but there will be a story that the world will be shocked and disgusted by.”
And while I was half-right when I guessed that Portugal defender and notorious club football villain Pepe would have his name written up in red neon lights, his mindless headbutt on Germany’s Thomas Muller will never match the infamy of Suarez’ dental dramas.
Brazil-based 2012 Irish sportswriter of the Year Ewan MacKenna joined us on Episode 12 to discuss the reaction to the bite in South America. He felt the nine-game international suspension and four-month general ban Suarez was given by FIFA was justified and also believes that a bite is a particularly heinous act.
“I don’t look at it in the same ways as a Zidane heabutt. Just from a purely psychological level, the idea of biting someone else is pre-evolution. It’s animalistic, it’s savage, so I don’t think it’s like a rough tackle or a moment that the World Cup will be remembered for because a lot of people were quite disgusted.”
Even outside of football, biting and spitting are viewed as more vile acts than the outright violence represented by punches, headbutts and kicks.
However while clearly a disgusting and wild offence, Suarez’s bite on Giorgio Chiellini served no purpose for Uruguay in terms of the overall goal of beating Italy. The same can be said of the Rijkaard spit in 1990, as a divided Netherlands squad lost to Germany, as well as Pepe’s headbutt in the 4–0 defeat in the group game against Germany.
Suarez’s handball on the line against Ghana in 2010 - which Richard was referring to in his premonitory question - served a far greater purpose for his country. Like Maradona’s Hand of God goal and his ephedrine doping in 1994, that handball was vital in helping Uruguay through to the semi-finals at the cost of Ghana, even if it would have been immaterial had Asamoah Gyan not missed the resulting penalty.
Both the handball and the bite are against the rules of the game, but in some ways it can be argued that the extra layer of cynicism which accompanied the handball actually makes it more villainous than the shocking and vile bite.
It is the reason why I chose Tassotti’s elbow on Enrique over a similar incident earlier in 1994. During the second round match between USA and Brazil, Leonardo swung a wild elbow into Tab Ramos.
Both incidents caused serious injury to the victims – Enrique broke his nose and lost a pint of blood, while Ramos suffered a fractured skull. But one was more cynical than the other. Leonardo swung his elbow into Ramos recklessly on the touchline with the referee mere feet away and cannot have been surprised when the red card was brandished. It had no positive impact on Brazil’s eventual triumph.
On the other hand, Tassotti’s elbow stopped Enrique from getting his head to a cross as Italy tried to hold onto a narrow 2 – 1 in the dying minutes against Spain. Despite its violent impact, the elbow was thrown into Enrique’s face subtly enough that it was not seen by any of the officials, with the former AC Milan defender avoiding any punishment as a result.
Dan and Richard’s choices of Bilic and Schumacher respectively are also in the same vein: acts of simulation and violence which were designed to hamper the opposition and attempt to gain a game-winning advantage.
As savage as Suarez’ penchant to bite other players is, it is doing him no good in terms of reputation nor in winning games – which makes his 2014 act more stupid than purely villainous in comparison to what he did against Ghana in 2010.
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