by Mark Bassey

Josep Maria Bartomeu has denied that there is a clause in Luis Suarez’s contract, inserted to ensure he does not bite another player.

The Barcelona president sealed a €88m deal to bring the striker from Liverpool this summer, but the Uruguayan is not likely to play till late October, after FIFA banned him for four months for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini.

It was the third time that Suarez has been involved in a biting incident and speculations claimed the Catalans had inserted a ‘bite clause’ in his deal.

“We didn’t rethink our decision and we told Luis that after the bite. He knows that he did wrong,” Bartomeu told CNN. “He apologised. That’s very important for us. That means he knows that he did not do things properly.

“There’s going to be a way of managing Luis Suarez, because at Liverpool he was a perfect player. Liverpool fans can tell it, our supporters can tell it.

“‘What if he bit someone again?’ is a question that a lot of people ask us. We cannot talk about something that could not happen. We don’t know.

“What we know is that we accept this responsibility and he also wants this responsibility. There is no biting clause. Although, if the clause did exist we wouldn’t say it, but it doesn’t exist.”

ifreke

Ifreke Inyang is a public commentator and social media critic who has worked with a number of high profile publications across the country.