Barcelona, Spain: Luis Suarez says he’s ready to put his latest episode of gross misconduct behind him after his first training with Barcelona, a day after his suspension for biting an opponent was softened.
Suarez said on Friday he was “very happy to feel like a football player again” after training with Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and the rest of his new teammates at Barcelona’s practice grounds outside the Catalan capital.
On Thursday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld Fifa’s decision to ban Suarez from playing for four months but lessened its restriction on other football-related activities, including practicing and playing friendlies.
Suarez called his biting of Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup in June an error. It was his third biting incident in his career.
“It has been a difficult, complicated situation because I was in a situation that made me feel uncomfortable, and I was paying for an error I made and had apologised for,” Suarez told Barcelona’s club television. “But I have to forget it, forget all of that, and think of the future and the present, which is being at this great club where I had dreamed of playing.”
The CAS ruling meant Suarez will be eligible to play in the friendly at Camp Nou on Monday, when the team under new coach Luis Enrique will be presented to its fans.
The Uruguay forward won’t be able to play a competitive match until October 25.
“Now I have to wait to play again,” Suarez said. “I have to be ready for when it is my turn.”
Suarez transferred to Barcelona from Liverpool for a reported fee of €97 million (Dh477 million) after his ignominious exit from the World Cup.
In a short statement on the Barcelona website, the club said: “Luis Suarez was the centre of attention this Friday morning at the first team training session at the Ciudad Deportiva Joan Gamper.
“After the ruling on Thursday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport [CAS] on the sanction imposed by Fifa on the Uruguayan player, Luis Suarez is now able to train with his new teammates.”
Suarez has reportedly been training on his own in an unknown location in Catalonia since completing his move to the Camp Nou from Liverpool last month.
He will be available to play in competitive matches from Saturday, October 25, meaning his official debut could come in the first Clasico of the campaign against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu, which has been scheduled for that weekend.
Suarez was banned for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup but despite the player being allowed to resume training, Uruguayan football officials are still “frustrated” with the handling of the controversy.
Uruguayan Football Federation lawyer Daniel Cravo told Sky Sports News: “We are really frustrated — we understand that the behaviour of Luis Suarez in that match deserved to be punished but we don’t think that it was the worst behaviour of a player in a World Cup.
“There have been worse situations and the players were not sanctioned at this level but of course we respect CAS’ decision.
“We have to wait for the reasons and we are sorry for not having achieved what our client wanted from us. I don’t want to criticise the decision because I don’t know the grounds, that’s something we are interested in checking.”
Suarez has never explained his propensity to bite opponents.
He earned a 10-game ban for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic in 2013, after being sidelined for seven matches with Dutch club Ajax in 2010 for the same offence against PSV Eindhoven’s Otman Bakkal.
Suarez will be presented to the Barga fans on Monday before the Joan Gamper Trophy match and on Tuesday he will be presented to the media at a press conference.
In Friday’s training session, as well as Suarez, Brazilian Neymar completed the full session, even though he has not received the medical all clear after suffering a fractured vertebrae in the World Cup quarter-final against Colombia.
