Suarez begins training at Barcelona

BARCELONA (AFP) – All eyes were on Luis Suarez
as he trained with his Barcelona team-mates for the
first time on Friday after getting the green light from
the Court of Arbitration for Sport
In a short statement on their website, the club said:
“Luis Suarez was the centre of attention this Friday
morning at the first team training session at the
Ciudad Deportiva Joan Gamper.
“After the ruling on Thursday by the Court of
Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on the sanction imposed
by FIFA on the Uruguayan player, Luis Suarez is
now able to train with his new team-mates.”
Suarez took an active part in the session with the
main group under the watchful eye of coach Luis
Enrique.
On Thursday, the CAS upheld Suarez’s four-month
ban from playing in competitive games as well as
his nine-match international suspension, but it did
allow him to train and play in unofficial matches.
And that means he could make his debut against
Mexican club Leon in the Gamper Trophy, the
traditional curtain-raiser to the season at the Camp
Nou.
There will be a temptation to give the 27-year-old a
run-out against Leon as it will be Barcelona’s final
friendly before their first league game of the new
season against Elche next weekend.
Suarez has reportedly been training on his own in
an unknown location in Catalonia since completing
his 95 million euros (£75 million, $127 million) move
to the Camp Nou from Liverpool last month.
He will be available to play in competitive matches
from Saturday, October 25, meaning his official
debut could come in the first Clasico of the
campaign against Real Madrid at the Santiago
Bernabeu, which has been scheduled for that
weekend.
Suarez was banned for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini
at the World Cup but despite the player being
allowed to resume training, Uruguayan football
officials are still “frustrated” with the handling of the
controversy.
Uruguayan Football Federation lawyer Daniel Cravo
told Sky Sports News: “We are really frustrated —
we understand that the behaviour of Luis Suarez in
that match deserved to be punished but we don’t
think that it was the worst behaviour of a player in a
World Cup.
“There have been worse situations and the players
were not sanctioned at this level but of course we
respect CAS’ decision.
“We have to wait for the reasons and we are sorry
for not having achieved what our client wanted from
us. I don’t want to criticise the decision because I
don’t know the grounds, that’s something we are
interested in checking.”
Suarez has never explained his propensity to bite
opponents.
He earned a 10-game ban for biting Chelsea’s
Branislav Ivanovic in 2013, after being sidelined for
seven matches with Dutch club Ajax in 2010 for the
same offence against PSV Eindhoven’s Otman
Bakkal.
Suarez will be presented to the Barça fans on
Monday before the Joan Gamper Trophy match and
on Tuesday he will be presented to the media at a
press conference.
In Friday’s training session, as well as Suarez,
Brazilian Neymar completed the full session, even
though he has not received the medical all clear
after suffering a fractured vertebrae in the World
Cup quarter-final against Colombia.