With referees cracking down ever harder on poorly timed challenges, and more and more calls for officials to also tackle the problem of dissent, it seems like suspensions are becoming more and more common in today’s game. Usually, of course, they only last one or two games, perhaps three for a more serious infraction.
At times though, some of the game’s biggest stars have been hit with far longer suspensions; some for infractions on the pitch, and others for off-the-field issues. They’ve caused chaos within the careers of these players – some missing out on major events while others may well have profited in the long run. Here are five of the longest – and most controversial - suspensions in football history.
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#5 Eric Cantona – 9 months
In 1995, Manchester United’s Eric Cantona was no stranger to controversy, the Frenchman’s volcanic temper having gotten the better of him on numerous occasions. During his early career in France he’d been banned for a month on two separate occasions – once for throwing his shirt away after being substituted by Marseille, and once for abusing the French Football Committee during a disciplinary hearing while playing for Nimes.
His longest ban was yet to come. He’d been sent off a few times for Man United and so when he was dismissed against Crystal Palace for a kick at Richard Shaw in January 1995 eyebrows were hardly raised. As he headed off the pitch though, he was abused by a Palace fan and Cantona responded by leaping into the crowd with a kung-fu kick aimed at the supporter. It was one of the wildest moments in football history.
After the incident, Cantona was hit with a criminal charge of assault, resulting in 120 hours of community service. Despite calls for the FA to ban him from English football permanently, he was instead hit with a nine-month suspension, with the FA’s chief executive Graham Kelly describing the attack as a “stain on the game”.
Cantona has since called it a “memory for the fans to treasure” – he returned from his suspension to lead United to a Premier League and FA Cup double in the next season.
#4 Luis Suarez – 4 months
Recognised as one of the world’s most talented strikers, Uruguay and Barcelona’s Luis Suarez is also one of the most controversial. He’d been in hot water during his time at Ajax for biting PSV attacker Otman Bakkal and his reputation hadn’t improved at Liverpool, as he’d been banned for eight games in 2011/12 for racially abusing Man United defender Patrice Evra and then for another 10 when he bit Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic two seasons later.
His longest ban would follow another biting incident, this time for his country rather than his club. Spearheading Uruguay’s attack in the 2014 World Cup, Suarez had essentially knocked England out of the tournament with his two decisive goals in their match, and was looking to repeat the same against Italy to guarantee his country a passage into the knockout stages.
During the game, with the score still 0-0, Suarez sunk his teeth into the shoulder of Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini. The referee missed the incident, but nobody else did and after the game – Uruguay won 1-0 with a goal from Diego Godin just two minutes later – he was in trouble.
FIFA hit Suarez with a four-month ban which would’ve kept him out of nine Premier League games as well as a handful of Liverpool’s Champions League fixtures. Rather than continue to deal with the controversy, the Reds sold Suarez to Barcelona for £75m – a move which made conspiracy theorists suspect the Uruguayan may have engineered the whole situation to get his desired move.
#3 Diego Maradona – 15 months (twice)
Diego Maradona is widely recognised as perhaps the greatest player to ever lace a pair of boots, and in his career, he led Argentina to a victory in the 1986 World Cup and Napoli to the Serie A title twice. Unfortunately, he also grappled with many demons and ended up facing two of the longest suspensions in football history – both following positive drug tests.
The first came in 1991 and ended his career at Napoli – he was banned by FIFA for 15 months following a positive test for cocaine. While the drug isn’t a performance enhancer per say, it’s considered a stimulant by sporting bodies and thus El Diego was sidelined. Popular legend suggests he’d been using cocaine since the mid-1980s during his time at Barcelona and was a full-blown addict by the time of his ban.
Maradona’s career was winding down by the time of the 1994 World Cup – he was 33 years old and had barely played in the previous season for Argentine side Newell’s Old Boys. Still, he came back into his national side and an inspirational performance in a 4-0 win over Greece suggested he still had the old magic.
His wild-eyed goal celebration raised some concern though and days later he tested positive for the banned stimulant ephedrine. FIFA again hit him with a 15-month ban and this time his career was essentially ended in disgrace.
#2 Rio Ferdinand – 8 months
While Ferdinand didn’t test positive for any substance like Maradona did, he suffered an incredibly long ban for simply missing a drug test entirely. The Manchester United defender was supposed to take a routine drug test in September 2003, but left United’s training ground before the testers could administer it, supposedly to go on a shopping trip.
Although he contacted the club immediately and offered to take the test – and indeed, provided a clean urine sample just two days later – the FA still threw the book at him.
To make things worse for Ferdinand, the ban was only confirmed in January 2004 after an investigation into the incident. That meant that not only would he miss the Premier League run-in with Man United, but he’d also be ruled out of England’s Euro 2004 campaign. An appeal in March 2004 was unsuccessful and meant that the Englishman was indeed ruled out until September.
His United and England teammate Gary Neville was particularly incensed by this and launched an attack on the FA in the media and really, he probably had a point – while skipping a drug test is always controversial, the fact that Ferdinand passed a test a couple of days later suggests he could never have been using performance enhancers anyway – the drugs usually stay in an athlete’s system for a substantial amount of time.
Realistically Ferdinand’s only crime was one of absent-mindedness.
#1 Joey Barton – 18 months
Another massively controversial figure in the game, Burnley midfielder Barton was most recently banned in April 2017 for a monstrous 18 months after he admitted to an FA misconduct charge due to his betting habits – he’d apparently made 1260 bets on football over a ten-year period, including betting on games he was involved in – arguably the biggest no-no in the sport due to fears of match-fixing.
For his part Barton seemed shocked by the length of the ban, suggesting lower-profile players may have gotten off with less, and that the FA were arguably encouraging gambling due to their relationship with online betting companies as sponsors.
He also admitted to having a gambling problem, and attempted to receive help for this as he had done with previous issues with anger management and alcohol.
Barton could certainly never be described as a “low-profile” player – he’s received nine red cards in his career, infamously lashed out at Sergio Aguero in 2012, fought with his teammates – including stubbing a cigar into Jamie Tandy while at Manchester City – been jailed for assault and affray, and accused of homophobia on numerous occasions after taunts at Fernando Torres and Thiago Silva.
In a way, it’s gobsmacking that his longest ban was for something as tame – in comparison – as gambling!
