World Cup

Diego Lugano blasts 'barbaric' FIFA over Luis Suarez ban

By Shane Callaghan, Reporter | 29 June 2014

Diego Lugano hits out at FIFA for their "barbarity" after Luis Suarez was banned from all football-related duty following his bite on Giorgio Chiellini.

Uruguay captain Diego Lugano has blasted 'barbaric' FIFA for issuing Luis Suarez with a four-month ban for biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini.

Suarez was slapped with a nine-game international ban and suspended from all football-related activity after being found guilty of biting Chiellini in Uruguay's 1-0 win this week.

The South Americans crashed out of the World Cup to Colombia on Saturday and, speaking to reporters at full time, Lugano described the sanction as an act of "barbarity".

"It's a breach of human rights that a player cannot go into a stadium where there are 80,000 people or into a hotel with his team-mates, that he cannot work for four months," he told reporters.

"He has committed a crime, but this [ban] is barbarity. Not even a criminal would receive this penalty."

On Saturday, the 27-year-old came out and claimed that he did not intend to bite the Juventus defender, while Chiellini himself has admitted that the punishment was "excessive".