Suarez Begins Training At Barcelona

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.