Bite was not deliberate: Suarez
Rio de Janeiro: luis Suarez told FIFA’s disciplinary panel that he did not deliberately bite Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup. The Uruguay striker’s defense that he lost balance and fell on his opponent 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. “At that moment I hit my face against the player leaving a small bruise on my cheek and a strong pain in my teeth,” Suarez said. However, the seven-man panel which met on Wednesday evening dismissed the argument. The bite was “deliberate, intentional and without provocation,” the ruling stated in paragraph No. 26 of the panel’s conclusions.
God, family & neymar for her
Brasilia: “First comes God, then family and then Neymar,” says Rayellen Andrade, 17, wearing the yellow Brazil team jersey with her idol’s name across the back. She’s among the tens of thousands of groupies known as “Neymarzetes,” who worship the Brazil and Barcelona forward on both sides of the Atlantic as if he were a Justin Bieber in football cleats. “Neymarmania” is sweeping across Brazil ahead of the team’s World Cup last-16 clash with Chile on Saturday. The face of Neymar, who changed haircuts and hair colour during the tournament before sporting a blond top, is everywhere: With long reddish hair and nails painted in green, Andrade comes from a middle-class family living in Brasilia. She has covered her bedroom with posters of the striker. She collects folders filled with newspaper articles about him. Unable to score tickets for Brazil-Cameroon in Brasilia this week, she went to the pre-game practice hoping to get his attention. “He knows I exist. My biggest dream is to kiss him and tell him I love him, that if he has a problem I will always be by his side,” she says. Watching the game at home, she welled up after Neymar, the World Cup’s joint top scorer, netted in the 4-1 victory. Her passion for Neymar began five years ago after an epileptic crisis. “I wasn’t interested in any particular player but when I turned 12, I became very sick,” she says.
No ramadan for ozil
Rio de Janeiro: Germany’s Mesut Ozil will not observe Ramadan when it starts on Saturday but many World Cup players who do follow the Muslim fasting month will be under strict medical surveillance. While Islamic Iran and Bosnia, which has a sizeable Muslim population, have dropped out of the tournament, Algeria has qualified for the last 16 for the first time and they will face a quick Ramadan test on Monday against Ozil’s Germany. Religious authorities in several countries take a pragmatic attitude to football and Ramadan when eating is not allowed during the daylight hours. In 2008, the Dar al-Ifta, Egypt’s main Islamic body, allowed professional footballers to eat during Ramadan if they were bound by contracts to play during the holy month and they felt that fasting will impact their performance. Other workers involved in “hard labour” are also given a dispensation. Ozil said he falls into this category. “I can’t take part,” said Arsenal’s attacking midfielder who added that the World Cup is “working”. “It will be impossible for me to take part this year.”
Cabaye warns against overconfidence
Ribeirao Preto: Midfielder Yohan Cabaye returns to the France lineup with a strong message for his teammates: don’t be overconfident. Cabaye will face Nigeria in Monday’s Round of 16 game. Cabaye was suspended for Wednesday’s 0-0 draw with Ecuador, and his crisp passing was sorely missed. Since that game, defender Bacary Sagna and midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin — Cabaye’s replacement against Ecuador — confidently promoted France’s chances, with Sagna saying on Friday it would be “a failure” not to win the tournament. “It’s great to be ambitious and that’s why we’re here. But to say we’re going to win the World Cup is a lot,” Cabaye said. “Confidence shouldn’t become arrogance because that’s when you have big problems.”