Luis Suarez's lawyer convinced the CAS will reduce Barcelona striker's ban

Daniel Cravo thinks appeal will be successful on Friday

Tom Sheen
Friday 08 August 2014 08:52 BST
Comments
Luis Suarez holds his teeth while Giorgio Chiellini lies in pain
Luis Suarez holds his teeth while Giorgio Chiellini lies in pain (Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Luis Suarez's lawyer Daniel Cravo is convinced the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will reduce his lengthy ban for biting Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup.

The Barcelona striker was banned for nine international matches and four months from "all football activity", as well as being fined 100,000 Swiss francs, for the now infamous incident in Brazil.

Suarez is set to appear in front of the CAS in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 8 August after they granted him an "express" tribunal - a decision is expected in the following days.

The £75m man has already been through one appeal with Fifa, who upheld their original ruling. Suarez is not even allowed to train and would not make his Barcelona debut until the weekend of 25 October.

"I think Fifa wanted to show they could take action," Cravo told Radio Globo.

"There was a dissatisfaction with how other incidents had been treated at the World Cup and Suarez paid for them. Not even the sanction of [Zinedine] Zidane in 2006 or those of Leonardo and [Mauro] Tassotti in 1994 were as severe.

"Is the Suarez incident the worst in the history of the World Cup? I believe that the sanction which affects his work at a club level will be revoked. There is no precedent in history to justify it.

"I am going to try and reduce his ban with Uruguay - nine games is too much and would stop him from playing until 2016."

Cravo pointed out that in the past the CAS have not been afraid to overturn Fifa decisions.

"[The CAS] is totally different and on various occasions in the past they have taken completely different decisions to those which have been taken by Fifa," he added.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in