I watched Kenny’s press conference a few days ago and was impressed by his responses to the questions about the Suarez situation. His answers put things firmly in perspective with regard to how the club intends to move forward. The simple answers is they can’t do anything until they see the report from the FA which reveals what evidence the independent panel used to base their decision to ban Suarez for eight matches and fine him £40,000.
Kenny wisely proffered that perhaps this was the way the FA always did things in these kind of situations (completely ineptly in my opinion) and they would have to wait and see before they could properly construct a response and an appeal.
As you may have already read form my previous post, I think the FA has shown complete lack of professionalism and leadership in this matter. How can it take so long to reveal the evidence that formed the basis of Suarez’s heavy-handed punishment? No one has pointed out that I am aware of that the only reason they went to an independent panel was because they didn’t have the balls to deal with the issue themselves and take the heat for the decision, one way or another. They abdicated their responsibility under the guise of being impartial.
The FA have now created an amazing precedent for themselves. If a player is actually found guilty of racism, which Suarez was not, what punishment will they now have to hand out? You can only imagine it would be way beyond eight games and lord knows how much in fines.
It’s clear the FA in accepting the decision of the independent panel have not thought through the repercussions of the Suarez decision and I’m going to be fascinated to see what action they take if John Terry is found guilty of actual racism in February.
