Luis Suarez’s lawyer will appeal against the four-month ban imposed on the Uruguay international striker by world football’s governing body, Fifa, at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).
The Lawyer, Alejandro Balbi, has described the punishment served the 27-year-old for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup as “draconian, totalitarian and fascist.”
An initial appeal by the Uruguay Football Association was rejected by Fifa.
“We hope they revoke this sanction,” Balbi said, speaking before Liverpool and Barcelona reached agreement on the Suarez’s transfer.
Suarez will miss the first part of the season following and is not expected to make appearance in any “football-related activities”- including training with his new club until the end of October.
His new club Barcelona has announced he would wear the number nine shirt and will be presented before the fans next week, but the part of the ban which prevents Suarez from entering the confines of any stadium has kept many in the dark, including Fifpro, which says the details lacks clarity.
The striker, who scored a brace at the World Cup, is also banned from nine international fixtures, and was fined to the tune of 100,000 Swiss francs (£66,000).
“(It) is blatantly draconian, totalitarian and fascist,” Balbi told Spanish radio station Cope.
“The right of a footballer to work is being violated, and football should be worried about that. The nine international games may seem excessive, but the fact that he can’t watch a game of football, or train or carry out his job- we are talking about unpleasant things.
“We knew that Fifa would uphold the ban because they are corporatists. We will not stop, we are going to go to Cas and we will keep taking the juridical path that is available.”
Ordinarily, Cas would sit and hear the matter while the player adhered to the terms of his ban.
But with the World Cup still ongoing, Suarez’s legal team could apply to the cas ‘ad-hoc’ division, which exists for the duration of the tournament for cases like such.
The ad-hoc division could suspend the sanctions pending a full hearing later in the year, allowing Suarez to return to football activities in the meantime.
“Justice will take its time but it will come,” added Balbi.
Liverpool confirmed on Friday that Suarez, who ended the 2013/14 Premier League season with 31 goals in 33 matches, will be joining Barcelona upon completion of his medicals.
