Soccer's Suarez On Bite: My Teeth Hit His Shoulder
Luis Suarez, the Uruguay soccer player who was banned from all games for four months after biting an opponent at the World Cup, says it wasn't a bite.
In a letter to the game's disciplinary panel, the Uruguay striker says he lost balance and fell on his opponent with his mouth. His appeal will now be presented to FIFA's appeal panel, after his national federation notified FIFA late Friday it would challenge the nine-match, four-month ban.
"In no way it happened how you have described, as a bite or intent to bite," Suarez wrote in Spanish in a letter dated June 25.
The player's defense is in paragraph 6 of FIFA's disciplinary committee ruling, which has been seen by The Associated Press.
"After the impact ... I lost my balance, making my body unstable and falling on top of my opponent," Suarez wrote in his submission to the panel which met Wednesday, one day after Uruguay beat Italy 1-0 in a decisive group-stage match.
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