The former England coach thinks the Uruguay striker needs professional help after Fifa barred him from all football-related activity for four months for biting Giorgio Chiellini

Glenn Hoddle believes Luis Suarez should face a lifetime ban from football if he ever bites an opponent again, after the Uruguay forward received a four-month suspension for attacking Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini.

Suarez, 27, was given a nine-game international suspension and banned from all football-related activity for four months for his third biting offence in almost four years in the key World Cup group game.

The striker was not sent off as la Celeste beat the Azzurri 1-0 to progress to the knockout stages, but former England manager Hoddle believes this is Suarez’s final chance to save his career.

“Luis Suarez should be banned from football for life if he ever bites an opponent again,” Hoddle wrote for hill.com.

“He needs help and this Fifa ban is fine as far as it goes. But first he needs to know that he needs to get help – or if he repeats it he will never play football again.

“He needs to get help out of fear, if you like, because has done it three times now.”

Former Argentina star Diego Maradona and even Chiellini himself have questioned the severity of Suarez’s punishment, but Hoddle says that the forward must use the fear of losing his future to move beyond his past behaviour.

“The possibility of a lifetime ban will scare him more than anything else, more than any fine, more than even this ban from the World Cup,” he continued. “He needs to activate a process of getting help.

“To help himself, he needs to know his entire career is now on the line, that there’s nowhere in the world he can play if he ever repeats it.

“He’s done it before and he clearly needs help. My message to Suarez is ‘go and get help you need, because if you ever do this again, you must be banned – for life.'”

Glenn Hoddle is Hill.com’s official World Cup blogger in Rio de Janeiro.

The Fifa president has criticised the actions of the Uruguay striker in biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini but refused to comment on his punishment

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has criticised the actions of Luis Suarez, saying that the Uruguay forward’s bite on Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini goes against the values he is trying to instil in world football.

The governing body handed Suarez a nine-match international ban and a four-month suspension from all football-related activity after the incident in last Tuesday’s Group D clash.

Blatter was unwilling to comment on the punishment, but said Suarez’s actions were unacceptable when it came to the general ethics of fair play in the game.

“I am fighting for fair play on the field of play and fair play off the field of play,” the 78-year-old told journalists.

“But especially on the field of play and this is not fair what he has done. It’s definitely not fair.

“Now to discuss the decision that has been taken by a panel of seven judges. It’s not up to me to make a comment on that.

“Obviously they have taken into consideration the other incidents of this player who has already been banned in football or suspended in football for the same activity.

“I cannot say whether it is too much or too little. This is an independent decision from Fifa.”

Blatter, who recently announced that he would like to run for another term as Fifa head, said that otherwise he has been delighted with how the tournament is progressing with most teams playing attacking football.

A total of 136 goals have been scored at an average of 2.83 per game.

“I’m not the only one who is impressed by that [the quality of games]” he said.

“What has changed from the former World Cups is that in the first matches in the first round, everybody wanted to win, not to not lose. The football was exceptional right up to the last matches, the third matches.

“In the third matches there are tactics to maintain a result but still it was very exciting and results [were] only decided in the last minutes of matches.”

The Uruguayan has been banned for four months – and nine games – after biting Giorgio Chiellini but the ex-Reds manager believes the club will stand by their star

Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish is confident the club “will not turn their back” on Luis Suarez following his latest ban for biting.

Suarez has been handed a four-month ban from all football-related activities, in addition to a nine-match international suspension, after biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini when representing Uruguay at the World Cup in Brazil.

Unless Suarez is successful in appealing the sanction from Fifa, Liverpool are set to be without their star striker for a significant chunk of the new season – as they were last term when Suarez served the second half of a suspension for a similar incident involving Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic.

However, Dalglish expects Liverpool to remain steadfast in their support of the 27-year-old, who has now been found guilty of biting on three occasions.

Writing in the Daily Mirror, the former Liverpool player and manager said: “I know that lots of people are jumping up and down and saying that Liverpool should disown Luis Suarez.

“Others are saying that the striker has become more trouble than he is worth, too. But you don’t just turn your back on someone because he has done something wrong.

“I think you will find that Liverpool will not turn their back on Suarez, whatever the ban Fifa have decided he must serve.”

Dalglish also questioned the consistency of the bans handed out to Suarez, with the player’s previous suspension for biting Ivanovic not preventing him from playing for Uruguay.

“When he was punished by the FA for the biting incident with Branislav Ivanovic and banned from domestic games, he was still allowed to play for his national team,” Dalglish added.

“It seems a bit strange, then, that when he is banned for something he did with his national team, his club has to suffer, too.”