Suarez...

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water...................

So Suarez has released a book, should be an interesting read.

Here's an excerpt:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/oct/26/luis-suarez-am-i-a-racist-no-absolutely-not-i-was-horrified

Did I use the Spanish word “negro" in an argument that took place, in Spanish, with Patrice Evra on 15 October 2011 in a game between Liverpool and Manchester United?

Yes.

Is the word “negro" the same in Spanish as it is in English?

No, absolutely not.

Am I a racist?

No, absolutely not.

I was horrified when I first realised that is what I was being accused of. And I’m still sad and angry to think that this is a stain on my character that will probably be there for ever.

I knew that Liverpool vs. Manchester United was the biggest game in English football for all the years of rivalry, and maybe even more so since Manchester United surpassed Liverpool in the number of league titles won.

It wasn’t my first game against them. We had played the season before and there had been no problems; the usual run-ins and clashes but nothing that I remember.

I first became aware there was a problem when Damian Comolli approached me after the game and asked me if anything had happened between me and Evra. At first I struggled to remember anything specific.

There had been an argument, but then I had probably had quite a few arguments during the game. Comolli said to me: “Well, they are complaining about racism." I was very surprised.

I recalled that the referee had called us over at one point. Evra had come looking for me at a corner asking me why I had kicked him. It is always a bit hypocritical when a defender who spends the whole game kicking you complains of being kicked.

He initiated the argument and he chose to do so in Spanish. In the following exchanges between me and him I used the Spanish word “negro" once.

What some people will never want to accept is that the argument took place in Spanish. I did not use the word “negro" the way it can be used in English.

s I am now fully aware (and I did not even know this at the time), in English there is a word that is spelled the same way but is pronounced differently and it is highly offensive: negro, pronounced nee-gro. Negro (pronounced neh-gro) in Spanish means “black", nothing more. It is not in itself an insult. Now, people will say: “Okay, but you said ‘black’ – you shouldn’t have." But Evra had started the argument in Spanish and the Spanish language is full of these ways of addressing someone: “Guapo" (handsome), “Gordo" (fatty), “Flaco" (skinny), “Rubio" (blond), and so on. Just names based on physical characteristics, nothing more. Negro can refer to anyone with dark hair as well as dark skin and I’ve been used to the word being used in Spanish in this way all my life. My wife sometimes calls me “Negro" or (the diminutive version) “Negrito". My grandmother used to call my grandfather “Negrito" and she would occasionally call me that too. I’m not trying to pretend it was meant in a friendly way to Evra because clearly we were arguing. But nor was it ever meant as a racist slur.

The second important point is that I said to Evra: “Por qué, negro?". “Por qué" means: “Why?" It was me asking him why he was complaining, first about the foul and then about me touching him. I told Comolli this, but by the time my version had been passed down the line to the referee it ended up not as “Por qué, negro?", but as “Porque eres negro", which changes the meaning drastically; “porque" doesn’t mean “why?", it means “because" – the phrase became “because you are black". I never said, nor would ever dream of saying, “because you are black". And I certainly never said, and never would say, that I would not talk to Evra, or anyone, because they are black.