Racial abuse "bites" the sting out of North-West derby

A Liverpool vs Manchester United match is never without colourful moments and controversies to top off the on-field action, and yesterday’s match was no exception. Calls of diving and controversial hand-ball decisions apart, the stand-out moment from a match which also saw Javier Hernandez come up with a saviour-like equaliser at the death, David de Gea pull out save after save and Liverpool constantly knocking on the door of United only to be denied, was the on-field tussle between Patrice Evra and Luis Suarez in the second half which forced referee Andre Marriner to intervene and make peace and later book the United captain for dissent.

It turns out that Suarez had allegedly abused Evra racially with a ‘certain [N] word’ “more than ten times” during the match in an attempt to wind him up. The Liverpool striker now faces an FA investigation after Marriner included the allegation in his report.

Evra was reported speaking to French channel Canal+ about the incident,

“I was very upset. In 2011 you can’t say things like this. He knows what he said, the ref knows it, it will come out.

“I won’t repeat what he said, but it was a racist word, and he said it more than ten times. He tried to wind me up. I won’t make a huge deal out of it, but it’s very upsetting and disappointing.”

Liverpool and Suarez have “categorically denied” the claims, saying there is no truth to them.

“The first we knew about these allegations was 20 minutes after the final whistle when the manager was asked to go into the referee’s office and told about them. The first thing we did, as you would expect, is ask the player and he has categorically denied using any language of that nature.”

Suarez is no stranger to controversy, for he has courted it all several times. Be it his deliberate hand-ball in the World Cup quarter-final against Ghana, his subsequent wild celebrations on the touchline when Asamoah Gyan missed the subsequent penalty or the ‘biting’ incident involving PSV midfielder Otman Bakkal in the Dutch League, the Uruguayan is known to be crafty when it comes to winding up his opponents psychologically, and he was at the heart of it yesterday as well with the Evra tussle and acts of diving which provoked angry reactions from United.

But with this incident having included by the referee in his match report and the matter having gone to the FA, Suarez could face serious repercussions for his behaviour if the racist claims are found true, and all his good work of settling in as Liverpool’s talisman undone.

An FA spokesman said,

“The FA has been made aware this evening of an incident that is alleged to have occurred during the Liverpool versus Manchester United fixture at Anfield.

“Referee Andre Marriner was made aware of the allegation at the end of the fixture and has subsequently reported this to the FA. The FA will now be making enquiries into the matter.”