Luis Suarez: Hand Of God Revisited

The great professional wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura was fond of using the catchphrase "Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat." Perhaps Luis Suarez is an afficianado of the former governor of Minnesota. Yes, the talk of the town is Suarez's heroic/dastardly (you choose) handball which stopped a goal-bound Ghana effort and carried the game into a penalty shoot-out when Asamoah Gyan missed the subsequent spot kick. If you ask Diego Forlan of Uruguay, Suarez is a "hero" who made a "great save." If you ask John Pantsil of Ghana, who apparently is not familiar with the rules of football, a goal should have been awarded.

Here's my question: is it fair to call what Suarez did "cheating?" I mean for me, cheating involves some sort of effort to con the referee or conceal your actions. Steroids? That's cheating. Sergio Busquets' constant diving? That's cheating. Hell, the pushing, grabbing, and shirt pulling that goes on in the penalty box before a corner is a better example of cheating; people who do this are assuming the referee won't see it. Suarez didn't hide what he was doing. He took the red card and walked off the field, no arguments, no whining . . . he did what he could to stop the goal and then he left it up to the fates. As it was, the fates were kind to him, and he now pays for his actions with a suspension for the semi-final against Holland.

Don't think I'm just saying this because I'm an American and we were eliminated by Ghana. When Phil Neville did something similar for Everton in the Merseyside Derby, I defended him, and anyone who has ever talked football with me knows I hate Phil Neville. The truth is, if I was playing in an important game, I can see myself doing the exact same thing. I once reamed a team-mate for intentionally handballing a shot off the line, but it wasn't because it was unsporting; it's because he did it in the first 10 minutes.

The notion that a goal should have been "awarded" is of course absurd. Remember, FIFA doesn't even award goals that actually go over the line, as Frank Lampard will tell you. Nobody was saying that a goal should have been given when Suarez himself was brought down in the box by South African keeper Itumeleng Khune. Nobody needed to say this, as Forlan converted the penalty. Had Gyan done the same, or had Ghana held their nerve in the shootout, the whole thing would have been a footnote.

Maybe it says something about the state of modern football when a player, and indeed his supporters, would rather win by highly dubious means than lose according to the rules. But looking at the picture below, I think it's safe to say that the Uruguayans are unconcerned about the greater implications of this incident.