The Uruguay striker has been banned from any football related activity for four months by Fifa and the Reds have been eased to 7/1 to win the title as a result

Liverpool may have traded at 1/5 (1.20) to win the Premier League title despite having played a chunk of the season without striker Luis Suarez last term but now they will need to do so again.

Suarez appeared to bite Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini during their final group match and the punishment will not only affect Uruguay’s World Cup campaign but it will also have far-reaching consequences on both the international and domestic stages.

Fifa have banned the 27-year-old from all football related activities for four months, as well as handing down a nine match suspension which will be served with his national side.

That will see Suarez out of action at Anfield until the end of October unless the decision is altered or overturned on appeal.

bet365 now make Liverpool a 7/1 (8.0) to win the Premier League title with the two front running favourites Chelsea and Manchester City shortening in the betting to 15/8 (2.88) and 7/4 (2.75) respectively.

Manchester United, who will be under the stewardship of Louis van Gaal next season are 11/2 (6.50) to return from their disappointing season in the most emphatic way possible.

Arsenal are made 9/1 (10.0) to finish top of the table with Tottenham way back in the betting at 50/1 (51.0).

bet365 make Suarez a 6/4 (2.5) shot to leave during the summer transfer window and 4/1 (5.0) to leave Liverpool in January 2015.

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The Liverpool star was handed a four-month global suspension from all football activity by Fifa after being found guilty of biting Giorgio Chiellini and he can have no complaints

COMMENT
By Greg Stobart in Brazil

Nobody should have any sympathy for Luis Suarez today.

The four-month ban from all football may appear shocking at first glance, but the Uruguay striker has only himself to blame.

Too many of Suarez’s team-mates and supporters have tried to defend the indefensible since he viciously sunk his teeth into Giorgio Chiellini’s shoulder in Natal on Tuesday.

A grown man. Gnawing away at defenders like a rabbit with a carrot.

It is strange, senseless and does not belong on a football pitch. It is the behaviour of animals, not footballers at a World Cup.

Had it been his first offence, Suarez might have got off more lightly. But this was the third time he has bitten an opponent on a football pitch.

In any other circumstances, this would be a unique incident – but Suarez has completed the hat-trick with the same ruthlessness that he slams balls into the Anfield net.

The seven-match ban for biting Otman Bakkal while with Ajax was clearly not enough, nor the 10-game suspension when he did the same to Branislav Ivanovic last year.

Maybe this will finally do the trick in making Suarez realise that there are consequences to his actions, in getting the 27-year-old to finally grow up.

The latest sanction means he will miss nine international matches for Uruguay and 12 Liverpool fixtures – meaning he faces a total ban of 38 matches for the three biting incidents in his career.

Fifa’s disciplinary committee were allowed to take Suarez’s history into account and they had no choice but to come down hard for an act of unprovoked cannibalism.

If there is one thing that could stir world football’s governing body into action, it is being embarrassed on such a grand stage.

Many will suggest that the ban harshly punished Liverpool for a misdemeanour that occurred while Suarez was wearing his national team’s colours. After all, he could still play for Uruguay when suspended at club level in the past.

But Liverpool are paying the price for indulging a player who is simply uncontrollable.

They backed him through the Patrice Evra racism storm in 2011-12 and again when he sunk his teeth into Ivanovic 14 months ago.

The Reds overlooked Suarez’s wild side in favour of the wonderful footballer who scored 31 Premier League goals last season and was rewarded with a £200,000-a-week contract and the PFA and FWA player of the year awards.

They tried to claim that Suarez was a changed man and had been rehabilitated on Merseyside.

We now know that is not the case.

Suarez needs psychological help. There is something deeply disturbing about someone with a compulsion to bite opponents.

This is not the swing of an elbow or a bad tackle in the heat of the moment, there is something deeper at play.

There is a chance that after this summer, Suarez could be Barcelona or Real Madrid’s problem rather than Liverpool’s. Fifa have confirmed that his ban from football activities – which means he cannot even step into a stadium – does not apply to a potential transfer.

Either way, he faces a miserable few months after receiving a record ban for an on-field offence at a World Cup.

And it’s exactly what he deserves.

The Liverpool striker has been suspended for nine competitive international matches and banned from all football-related activity for four months for biting Giorgio Chiellini

By Liam Twomey at Estadio Maracana

Brazil legend Ronaldo says Luis Suarez’s four-month ban for biting Giorgio Chiellini is comparable to how he used to send his young children “to the dark room with the big bad wolf” for biting him at home.

Fifa on Thursday announced that Suarez will be suspended for nine competitive international matches, banned from all football-related activity for four months and fined €82,000 for sinking his teeth into the Juventus defender’s shoulder during Uruguay’s 1-0 defeat of Italy on Tuesday.

This latest ban means Suarez will have missed a total of 36 matches over the past four years as a result of biting on the field of play, despite not receiving a single red card.

But Ronaldo feels the punishment is justified and jokingly claimed it was the equivalent of the way he used to discipline his children for the same offence at home.

“Why do you want my opinion on Suarez? I never bit anyone!” he told reporters when asked about Suarez during a media briefing at the Maracana.

“I know bites hurt. My young kids used to bite me and I’d punish them in my home. I’d send them to the dark room with the big bad wolf! I suppose not being able to play for four months is the same for an adult.”

Voicing his agreement with Fifa’s sanction, the Brazilian added: “Football has to be seen as it is. It’s educational, social. We have to use football for the good of mankind, not for evil things.”