FIFA "has rejected an appeal" by Uruguay footballer Luis Suárez and the Uruguay Football Federation (AUF) "against his four-month ban from all football activities for biting an opponent" during the World Cup, according to the London TELEGRAPH. The appeal was lodged against the sanctions imposed on the Liverpool striker by FIFA's disciplinary committee for biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini. They included a nine-match international ban plus a 100,000 Swiss Franc ($113,000) fine. Both the player and the AUF "can make a further appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport" (TELEGRAPH, 7/10). REUTERS' Mike Collett reported Suárez "initially denied biting Chiellini but apologisied nearly a week later." Suárez said in a statement on Twitter, "The truth is that my colleague Giorgio Chiellini suffered the physical result of a bite in the collision he suffered with me." FIFA's disciplinary committee "ruled that he acted intentionally and handed him the longest ban ever imposed on a player at the World Cup, prompting fury in his South American homeland, where he was given a hero's welcome on his return." Chiellini himself "has described the ban as excessive" (REUTERS, 7/10).
