COMMENT
By David Lynch

There was an inevitability to the severity of the backlash following Luis Suarez’s latest dive for Liverpool last week.

Last Sunday, the Uruguayan threw himself to the ground, flaying his arms and whipping his head back in trademark fashion, despite an absence of contact from the three Stoke players surrounding him in the penalty box.

Thankfully, referee Lee Mason was unmoved by that act of blatant cheating, meaning the Potters came away from Anfield with the point which their defensive solidarity had entirely merited.

Rather unfortunately for Suarez, the official’s full-time whistle marked not just the end of the game, but the beginning of an international break – a period in which news stories are scarce in the world of football. There were several people willing to fill the empty agenda, all providing views of varying extremes on the striker’s latest act of simulation but all agreeing on one thing: Suarez is a cheat.

Stoke boss Tony Pulis was keen to get the ball rolling, slamming Suarez’s behaviour as “embarrassing” after the game and calling for a three-match ban to be meted out. He was later joined by Fifa vice-president Jim Boyce, who took time out of displaying the impartiality his role requires in order to single out the former Ajax man’s antics as “a cancer within the game”.

Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny, a player entirely unrelated to the incident itself, became the latest outraged observer to pass comment, branding Suarez “a cheat” when asked a fairly innocuous question about which Premier League forward is hardest to face.

These judgements were of course eagerly passed down without context, the sort of quotable soundbite perfectly formed to fill the information chasm over the international break. But, taking into account the difficult nature of the subject, none were fair assessments of the man at the centre of the row.

Pulis’ contribution was key to setting the tone. The Welshman cleverly walked away from reporters in the middle of his post-match press conference, moments after slamming Suarez but just before the journalists present could elicit his views on Robert Huth’s stamp on the 25-year-old’s chest early in the match.

Such perspective is surely key when assessing the reasons behind the dive. Would the Uruguayan have needed to resort to such dramatics had he faced 10 men from just five minutes into the match? Were Stoke’s physical tactics and the referee’s failure to adequately combat them another contributory factor?

Regardless, it is disturbing to see that diving has become the de facto topic of discussion following a match in which an act of physical assault went unpunished. The player himself may also feel concerned that it is his dive, and not the two which fellow Premier League superstar Gareth Bale committed on the same afternoon, which has garnered the most attention.

Quite simply, what makes these players so different?

Ever since Sir Alex Ferguson’s declaration that “the boy Suarez dives all over the place” back in October 2011 the Liverpool striker has found it increasingly difficult to win a penalty, even in the case of being karate chopped (genuinely) in the box, as occurred against Norwich recently. The likes of Bale, and those in Ferguson’s own flock such as Ashley Young and Danny Welbeck, have seemingly not encountered such trouble, despite several questionable spot-kick claims over that period.

Former England striker Michael Owen’s recent declaration that foreign players have encouraged an increase in diving in the Premier League perhaps provides insight as to why. Owen, now with Stoke, told the BBC: “It’s worse than 10 years ago with the influence of players coming from South America, Spain and Italy,” before going on to admit he had gone down under minimal contact during the 1998 World Cup. Yes, 14 years ago.

That there was zero foreign influence in the Glenn Hoddle-managed England squad back then exposes his claims for what they are – a further attempt by English football to disassociate itself from any form of gamesmanship. Of course, this is the nation which gave the world the phrase “he’s not that type of player”, before rarely applying that quote to our friends from further afield.

It is far easier to apportion blame to the likes of Suarez, a South American whose face fits the profile of a sneaky cheat, such is the unfortunate sneer seemingly permanently etched upon his face. It is a tag which certain sections of the media have gleefully exploited and one which the man himself has admittedly done little to shake off.

And, in a sense, that is right. His behaviour should not be excused, or be subject to less scrutiny than it currently is, but perhaps it would all feel a bit fairer if his peers were treated in the same way. To paraphrase George Orwell: Sometimes it seems that all players are equal, but some are more equal than others.

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By David Lynch

Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group have reaffirmed their commitment to redeveloping the club’s Anfield home.

The Reds’ lengthy battle with Liverpool city council over the necessary demolition of nearby housing appears have reached an amicable conclusion, though specific announcements regarding an increase in capacity will not be made until a later date.

And managing director Ian Ayre revealed Liverpool have been working closely with the council in order to reach a solution which will help regenerate the entire Anfield area.

He told the club’s official website: “I know a proposition of staying at Anfield has been looked at before, but fundamentally the difference is that for the first time ever all of the relevant parties are coming together for a common initiative and that common initiative is not for the needs of the football club but actually the needs of the community.

“The regeneration of Anfield is something that many residents and many people throughout the city have talked about and we all recognise the football club is an employer, a business, and a resident, to some extent, in this area.”

Ayre, who remained keen to insist that an Anfield stay is as yet not a certainty, also claimed that staying put was a more economically viable option than building a new stadium.

He added: “If you build a new stadium, for example, one of the big challenges is that, depending on the capacity, you build 15,000 or 16,000 new seats – you don’t get 60,000 new seats in a new stadium, you only get the difference.

“That makes it very difficult to make it viable because the cost of building such a big new stadium doesn’t work economically, particularly in this market, so one of the things we had to look at was the balance between that solution and a staying at Anfield type solution, and the work we’ve done on that showed us that as long as we could find the right solution to stay at Anfield and get through the barriers and hurdles that we needed, we would have to find the best long-term solution for the club that had sustainability and worked economically.”

The Anfield Road and Main Stand areas of the historic ground are believed to have been marked out for refurbishment, in order to bring the stadium’s capacity up to around 60,000 – in line with Liverpool’s rivals at the top end of the Premier League.

As explained by fan site The Anfield Wrap on Saturday, the Merseyside outfit hope to begin the restoration work in 2014.

The announcement brings an end links with a vacant plot of land on nearby Stanley Park, where the Reds had previously planned to build a new stadium for which plans have been written off at the cost of £35 million.

Principal owner John W Henry had repeatedly spoken of his desire to refurbish Anfield following FSG’s takeover – two years ago to the day – citing concern over the escalating cost of a new build for the relatively small reward of just 15,000 extra seats.

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Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny has hit out at Liverpool striker Luis Suarez, slamming the Uruguayan as a “cheat”.

Suarez has drawn the ire of the likes of Fifa vice-president Jim Boyce and Stoke City manager Tony Pulis in recent weeks for a dive during the Reds’ match against the Potters.

Now, Koscielny has joined the criticism of the Uruguay international, naming him as the striker he enjoys facing least because of his style of play.

“A striker that I hate to mark? Luis Suarez,” Koscielny told L’Equipe. “He is hard to take. He cheats, pulls your shirt and gives you little kicks. You always want to give him a kick but you have to be careful not to be red carded.”

Suarez refuted Boyce’s words on Saturday, claiming that he had never heard of the Northern Irishman and that he simply “wants to get publicity”.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers slammed “the vilification of Luis” as “both wrong and unfair”, while Suarez himself has insisted that his “conscience is clean”.

Koscielny was more complimentary in his praise of former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, who left the Premier League for a brief spell at Shanghai Shenhua at the end of last season.

“He is tough, he is good when he plays with his back to goal,” Koscielny said of the Ivorian. “He’s strong with his head. He is the first defender, he runs everywhere. We saw against Barcelona last season – by himself, he crashed the Barcelona ship.”