Eugenio Figueredo confirmed the Liverpool star will miss next year’s Copa America but says he is battling to see the suspension reduced

Luis Suarez’s nine-month international football ban has been blasted as “barbaric” by the president of the South American Football Confederation.

The Uruguay international was handed the suspension by Fifa for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chillieni during his side’s World Cup group stage win in Natal, which saw Oscar Tabarez’s side qualify for the last 16 – where they were eventually eliminated by Colombia.

Suarez was also handed a four-month ban from all football-related activities – which will rule him out of Liverpool’s first nine Premier League and three Champions League games next season should he stay at the club – and was ordered to pay a hefty fine.

The chief of Conmebol, Eugenio Figueredo, confirmed that Suarez will miss Uruguay’s Copa America matches next year and some of the team’s 2018 World Cup qualifying games, but stressed he is working to see the suspension reduced.

“Right now I’m defending Suarez 24 hours a day and, for now, the penalty is for official matches of the Uruguayan team, but not friendly matches or anything like that,” Figueredo told Uruguay radio station, Sport 890.

“If the referee had seen something, he could not have acted on his own, but the 34 cameras that Fifa have detected what the three officials failed to detect.

“Suarez’s punishment is barbaric. I hope that [the ban] is not for as many games. Already there are people working on reducing the ban.

“Our goal is to see that the ban is lowered and we are working on that.”

Uruguay will be hoping to defend their Copa America title next year in Chile, and should la Celeste make it to the final of the tournament, Suarez would only miss two of his side’s 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

Arsenal have submitted an offer for the Chile star that matches Barcelona’s valuation but must now convince the forward to choose them over his other suitors

EXCLUSIVE
By Wayne Veysey

Arsenal have tabled a €40 million bid for Alexis Sanchez as Arsene Wenger prepares a charm offensive to land the Chile World Cup star ahead of rivals Liverpool.

The Gunners boss will meet Sanchez’s agent in Brazil this week to convince the forward that he should move to the Londoners ahead of the other clubs competing for his signature.

Liverpool are set to request Sanchez as part of a possible part-exchange deal that could take Luis Suarez to Barcelona, while Manchester United and Juventus also have a strong interest in signing the Chilean.

Arsenal were preparing a bid that matched the Catalan club’s €40m valuation of Sanchez after making him their No.1 forward target for this window.

The Gunners have now made their move and are confident the transfer fee and structure of payments they have proposed to Barca will be accepted by the Spanish giants.

Wenger will now attempt to convince Sanchez, whose World Cup ended last Saturday when Chile were eliminated on penalties by Brazil, that he should choose Arsenal ahead of his other suitors.

It was widely reported that a Barcelona delegation were to meet with Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre in London on Wednesday for an opening round of talks over signing the striker.

Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu admitted that bids had been tabled from a number of clubs, although he was keen to stress that the Catalunya side are not necessarily going to sell up this summer.

“I can confirm we have received offers from several clubs for Alexis Sanchez,” he said at a press conference on Tuesday. “Not just for what he has done at the World Cup but for what he has done before.

“He’s a player there in the market that people have got an eye on but he’s our player for the moment and he’s a basic member of the way our team plays.

“He fits our system, he had a magnificent season last season. He scored a lot of goals, provided assists, had a lot of the ball.

“He’s a player we would like to have with us next season. But we are getting a lot of calls from clubs who are making offers to buy Alexis Sanchez.”

Sanchez, 25, is a player in demand after a series of outstanding World Cup displays and a season in which his 21 goals were bettered at Barcelona only by Lionel Messi.

Arsenal had sent a delegation to Madrid to hold talks with a mystery forward, who is now understood to have been Sanchez.

The Gunners have now stepped up their efforts to sign Sanchez and the seriousness of their pursuit is demonstrated by the fact that both chief executive Ivan Gazidis and contract negotiator Dicky Law were involved in the negotiations in Madrid.

Wenger and his scouts believe Sanchez has the attributes to be developed into a centre-forward at Emirates Stadium.

The Gunners’ top priority this summer is to clinch the signing of an elite forward who can provide competition next season for Olivier Giroud, the only senior striker at Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal tried to sign Julian Draxler in a £30m deal in January and failed with moves for Luis Suarez, Gonzalo Higuain and Wayne Rooney last summer as well as a last-ditch loan bid for Demba Ba.

With officials from Camp Nou set to meet with the Merseyside outfit on Wednesday, the La Liga outfit have refused to rule out a move for the Uruguay striker

Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has hinted the Catalan outfit are in discussions with Liverpool over the signing of Luis Suarez.

Goal understands officials from the Camp Nou outfit are meeting with Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre on Wednesday to discuss the possible transfer of Suarez.

Liverpool will hold out for the release clause of between €75 million & €100m before agreeing to sell the Uruguay striker, despite his four-month ban for biting meaning he will miss the opening two months of the season.

And while Bartomeu confirmed that Barcelona are in the process of reinforcing the first team, he refused to specifically name Suarez as a target.

“I did say that this year we are going to be restructuring the team in depth and we’re working on that,” he said at a press conference.

“We’ve been working on that since February. But I can’t reveal things we’re doing. It’s a textbook situation we have to be discreet on these things, we cannot give clues to other teams.

“I will say that we do have a lot of negotiations at an advanced stage, but people are at the World Cup so negotiations aren’t all as far as we would like.

“But people are going to speculate about players that are at the World Cup and who we could sign but there’s an awful lot of factors.

“Suarez is not a Barca player he’s a Liverpool player so I can’t speak about him. I can speak about what he did, to come out and apologise it is honourable.”

Having missed out on La Liga, the Champions League and Copa del Rey last season, Bartomeu conceded Barcelona underachieved under Gerardo Martino.

But Bartomeu is confident that Barcelona’s reshaping of the first-team squad, including new head coach Luis Enrique, will help bring about an upturn in fortunes.

“We want to be able to once again win every competition we take part in,” he added. “Bringing Luis Enrique on board is an example of what we want to do.

“We’re bringing in players who are part of our philosophy but also bring something new to the club.

“Let’s not forget we have Neymar, [Lionel] Messi, [Andres] Iniesta, we have the best players in the world here. They’re all here, we’re a unique team and are privileged to have them with us.”