Shamed Suarez may miss the final

Shamed Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez could miss the World Cup final were the two-time winners to reach it as FIFA’s disciplinary commission are to assess whether he merits more than the automatic one match ban for a red card.

The Ajax star – scorer of three goals so far at the finals – was shown a straight red card by Portuguese referee Olegario Benquerenca for the illegal goal-line clearance which kept out Ghanaian substitute Dominic Adiyah’s header but resulted in a penalty in the last minute of extra-time in Friday’s quarter-final.

However, Asamoah Gyan then sent his penalty – the last kick of the game – crashing off the crossbar to give the Uruguayans a reprieve which they exploited by prevailing 4-2 in the shoot-out which followed after the match had finished 1-1.

“This was the end of the World Cup. I had no choice. I have the ‘Hand of God’ now,” said Suarez, referring to Argentinian Diego Maradona’s claiming it for himself for the first of the two goals he scored in the 1986 2-1 win over England in the last eight match.

However, FIFA spokesman Pekka Odriozola said on Saturday that as a matter of routine the disciplinary commission would review any offence that receives a straight red card to decide whether it merited a harsher punishment.

“As is the case for any red card, any automatic red card in any match, there’s an automatic one match suspension,” said Odriozola.

“And also the disciplinary committee opens the case for any automatic red card in any match.

“Which means the disciplinary committee will be looking at the incident and take a decision. We don’t have any timing on when they will meet to take that decision.”

Odriozola refused to be drawn on what he thought of the incident.

“Fair play is very important for FIFA, but I will not make any judgement on specific actions of matches,” he said.