RIO DE JANEIRO: Uruguay’s football federation has confirmed to world governing body FIFA that it intends to appeal against the four-month, nine-game suspension on striker Luis Suarez for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini on Tuesday.

Suarez, in his statement to the disciplinary committe, had said that he merely fell into Chiellini’s shoulder after the two players jumped for the ball. He hurt his mouth in the collision before falling to the ground.

This confirmed comments by federation president Wilmar Valdez in the immediate aftermath of the incident in Uruguay’s 1-0 win whch saw them reach the second round where they face Colombia in Rio tomorrow.

On Friday Uruguay coach Oscar Washington Tabarez repeated the claims of Uruguayan football officials and politicians that Suarez had been the victim of malicious pressure from English, Italian and Brazilian sources.

A FIFA spokesperson said in Rio de Janeiro today that the UAF had submitted a letter giving notice of an intention to appeal. It now had up to seven days to submit written reasoning.

One of the grievances of the UAF, as expressed to the FIFA disciplinary committee headed by Claudio Sulser, is that other instances of violent play have gone unpunished.

One apparently contradictory incident noted by the international media was the refusal of the committee to punish France defender Mamadou Sakho for elbowing Ecuador’s Oswaldo Minda in the goalless Group E draw in Maracana on Wednesday.

Last Monday Jiri Dvorak, FIFA’s chief medical officer, noted with satisfaction that, back in 2006, the law-making International Board had deemed elbowing to the head as a red-card offence.

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