Uruguay team-mates back Suarez

Luis Suarez’s Uruguayan team-mates have leapt to the striker’s defence after he copped an eight match ban for making racist comments.

The South American forward was found guilty in a misconduct charge on Tuesday, fined 40,000 pounds and banned for eight matches after Manchester United defender Patrice Evra filed a complaint against him following the 1-1 between Liverpool and the Red Devils on October 15.

Suarez, however, has long been defended by his compatriots, who claimed that the use of the term ‘negrito’ is simply not a racist remark in Latin American culture.

Uruguay captain Diego Lugano led the condemnation of the ban handed out by the FA.

“I can’t believe it,” Lugano said on his official website. “A great error is being committed here.”

“It’s obvious that in England there is a racism problem and they want to eradicate it, and that’s fine, but there are no solid arguments here and that’s an error; Luis is a victim.”

The Paris Saint-Germain defender also hit out at Evra for reporting the incident.

“I don’t know how a player like Evra could do this,” he said. “He is breaking all the codes in football.”

“We all know what kind of person Luis is and the values he has. We are very hurt and, when a team-mate of ours is suffering, we suffer too.”

Another Uruguayan, Napoli’s Walter Gargano, called the situation a “fiasco” and claimed Evra just wanted to “be in the news”.

“I don’t why this kid came out and spoke – he must be jealous of Luis,” Gargano told 1010 AM.

“It’s happened to me with other players – you say things to each other but it stays at that.”

“I don’t think Luis will have done it because he is racist, but because of football – for me it’s a tremendous fiasco.”

Lazio’s Alvaro Gonzalez also believes that Suarez’s comments have been misconstrued.

“In Uruguay we use terms that can be misinterpreted and all of us who know Luis know that he wouldn’t have made the comment as a defamatory remark,” Gonzalez told Ovacion.

“You can’t call a Uruguayan racist because of that… perhaps we are paying the price for going to live in different cultures.”

Liverpool have suggested they will strongly consider appealing the ban.