Barcelona and Liverpool Open Talks on Luis Suarez
After the biting controversy in the World Cup, it appears some teams are neither afraid of Luis Suarez's bite nor his bark.
ESPN FC reports that Barcelona is preparing their offer to buy Luis Suarez's contract with Liverpool as they are slated to meet with its chief executive Ian Ayre in London on Wednesday.
The meeting will be two-pronged as Liverpool also has its eyes set to acquire from Barcelona, Chile international forward Alexis Sanchez. For Barca's side, the chief negotiator will be Raul Sanllehi, the director of football management.
The controversial striker for Liverpool has been banned for four months of any football related activity imposed by FIFA after it upheld its findings on the biting incident with Giorgio Chiellini of Uruguay. Uruguay prevailed in the said Group D match-up over Italy, 1-0 last June 24th. The said ban did not include transfer to other teams, FIFA clarified.
After submitting to the investigating panel that the bite was accidental, the Uruguay striker issued an apology via Twitter last Monday. Sources say that the Spanish team has required a public apology from Suarez if a transfer is to be considered.
Barcelona sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta said: "Suarez has shown he is humble enough to admit an error, which is very important.Everyone knows Luis is an excellent player, everyone knows last season he played in various positions in attack, but everyone also knows he is a Liverpool player."
With the interest of Barcelona to take on his contract, it appears that the departure of Suarez from Anfield will be very likely although the club will only release him if the contract clause is satisfied, which is in the ballpark of 70 to 80 million pounds. As early as last year, rumours were ripe that Suarez was bound to leave Liverpool following numerous interviews with the striker saying that he wanted to depart the club. The Reds even rejected two bids from Arsenal to acquire him and committed Suarez to a contract extension which will affirm his stay at Anfield until 2018.
The said contract however left a window open for a release clause which is now the subject of talks with the upcoming meeting of Barcelona and Liverpool.