Uruguay defends Suarez as FIFA scrambles

Suarez's teammate Diego Lugano agreed.

"The British media has a vendetta against Suarez, and everyone knows that," he said. "It's obvious the vendetta sells newspapers in England, otherwise you wouldn't be here. Uruguay and Italy played yesterday. On Saturday Uruguay plays Colombia, I don't know why there's a British journalist asking about Suarez."

Lugano said he had seen "much more violent plays" than the bite at the World Cup.

"It was a normal taunt in football, and the world press ends up talking about something totally trivial," he said.

FIFA's case against Suarez - announced early Wednesday - will be managed by a Swiss lawyer, Claudio Sulser, chairman of the FIFA disciplinary committee. A former international forward himself, Sulser has worked for four years at FIFA, first as head of its ethics court.

Sulser can choose to judge the offense within the scale of typical red-card incidents: A three-match ban may then be appropriate, banishing Suarez at least until the World Cup final should Uruguay advance that far.

The maximum penalty would be a ban of 24 international matches.

FIFA can also choose to ban Suarez for up to two years. That would cover club and international games and would ruin a widely speculated transfer to Barcelona or Real Madrid.

Suarez and the Uruguay football federation had until 5 p.m. local time Wednesday (4 p.m. EDT/2000 GMT) to present a documented defense.

Completing the case ahead of Saturday's match could be complicated if Suarez appeals. That challenge could go direct to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland for an urgent and binding ruling.

However, one option open to FIFA and Sulser to avoid that scenario is that a suspension of "fewer than three matches or of up to two months" cannot be appealed, according to FIFA rules.

Already, one of Suarez's sponsors said it was "reviewing our relationship with him."

"We will not tolerate unsporting behavior," 888poker said in a Twitter message.

Last month, the firm announced a global endorsement contract with Suarez, a poker enthusiast.

adidas, which also has Suarez as a client and is FIFA's longest standing World Cup sponsor, said it was monitoring the case.

Meanwhile, Suarez was criticized by a Uruguay football great Alcides Ghiggia, the last survivor of the team which defeated Brazil to win the 1950 World Cup.

Suarez "plays well but he has done things that are not normal for a player nor for a soccer game," Ghiggia told The AP. "I think FIFA can sanction him."

AP Sports Writer Rob Harris in Rio de Janeiro and Associated Press writer Leonardo Haberkorn in Montevideo, Uruguay, contributed to this report

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