Suarez refuses to apologise to Ghana for handball incident

DOHA, Qatar — Luis Suarez stated he will not apologise for the controversial handball incident that denied Ghana a spot within the 2010 World Cup semifinals after being advised he’s thought to be a “devil” within the African nation forward of Friday’s rematch with Uruguay at Qatar 2022.

Suarez, 35, was despatched off for maintaining out Dominic Adiyiah’s goal-bound header together with his arms within the ultimate minute of additional time within the 2010 quarterfinal in Soccer City, South Africa.

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Although Ghana had been awarded a penalty to strive to win the sport, which was tied at 1-1, Asamoah Gyan missed his spot-kick and Uruguay went on to e-book a semifinal in opposition to the Netherlands by profitable 4-2 on penalties.

The incident was one of the vital controversial in World Cup historical past and denied Ghana the prospect to turn into the primary African nation to attain the semifinals within the competitors.

The two international locations meet once more at Al Janoub on Friday, with Uruguay needing to win to have any hope of qualification at Ghana’s expense from Group H.

But after being advised by a Ghanaian journalist that he’s “regarded as diablo — the devil — in Ghana and we want to retire you tomorrow,” Suarez stated he’s not to blame for Ghana failing to win the 2010 sport.

“I don’t apologise about that, I did the handball, but the Ghana player missed the penalty, not me,” Suarez stated at a information convention in Doha. “I could apologise if I injured a player with a tackle and got a red card, but in this situation I take a red card and the referee says penalty.

“It’s not my fault, I did not miss the penalty. The participant who missed the penalty stated he would do the identical [as I did] in that state of affairs. It’s not my accountability on this state of affairs.”

Suarez’s career has been overshadowed by a number of on-field controversies, including an eight-match suspension for racially abusing Manchester United’s Patrice Evra while playing for Liverpool and other bans for biting opponents while playing in the Premier League and during his time at Ajax and Uruguay.

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And Suarez said that talk of revenge in the Ghana game is “counterproductive” by pointing to how he has been able to move on from the four-month ban he received from FIFA for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini while playing for Uruguay at the 2014 World Cup.

“I do not know what persons are saying about revenge,” Suarez added. “The gamers taking part in tomorrow could have been, what eight years outdated again then [in 2010]?”

“They are saying I’m the satan and this stuff, however what I did with Chiellini, I performed in opposition to him afterwards, I made a mistake and we shook arms.

“You can’t just keep thinking about the past and revenge because that can be counterproductive.”

If Uruguay fail to win on Friday, it’s anticipated that Suarez will retire from worldwide soccer, however he stated that his nation can nonetheless get a outcome by drawing on Uruguay’s qualities as a small nation.

“We are facing challenging times,” he stated. “But this is our World Cup now. We’d love to be in a different situation, but we are Uruguayans and we are used to this struggle.

“We are adequate gamers to be in a unique state of affairs, however we will rise to the problem in opposition to hardship.

“As footballers, we are used to making excuses, but all of our players are doing a good job in their clubs and we are here for our country, so let’s stop making excuses.”