FIFA’s disciplinary committee dropped the hammer on Luis Suarez today for biting Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini in their group stage match on Tuesday. The three-peat disciplinary action offender is banned for the rest of the World Cup, the next 9 matches with his national team, and four months from his club, Liverpool.  It is a debilitating blow for the Uruguayan national team, which proved to be Suarez-dependent in the group stage. They are scheduled to play Colombia, which decisively won their Group D, this Saturday.  It’s a potential blow for Liverpool too. The 27-year old striker was crucial to the team finishing second in Premier League standings this past season. He tied the league’s single season goal scoring record of 31 and won both of English soccer’s major player of the season awards.  But does the bite heard around the world hurt Suarez? Financially, it appears not.  Luis Suarez and Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini post-bite. Photo courtesty: Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty Images  Suarez ranked No. 20 on our list of The World’s Highest-Paid Soccer Players. In the last year he earned $17 million, $13 million in salary after signing a club record $75 million contract extension last December aimed at keeping him at Anfield until 2018.  In the short term, at stake would be about $4 million of those wages if Liverpool was able to withhold his pay since he is banned from all soccer activity. One European wage expert tells FORBES though that the club is contractually obligated to continue to pay him. Their recourse could be to fine him two weeks of wages, the maximum allowed under English Premier League rules agreed upon with the Professional Footballers Association. That would amount close to $500,000.  If the club wants to do this, they should so quickly. FIFA confirmed today that Suarez can complete any possible transfer away from the club this summer despite the ban.  Rumors have swirled since the end of the season that Suarez is expected to make the move to one of the global juggernauts, with the likes of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid the frontrunners willing to put up as much as $100 million to sign him. That would rank Suarez among the most expensive transfer fees in the world.  It would almost certainly mean another bumper contract, compensating for any possible lost wages and certainly covering the $111,760 fine that FIFA imposed with this ban.  Additionally while minor sponsor 888poker dropped him less than a month after signing him, others like Pepsi and Beats are still sticking with the player they knew was controversial when they signed him. Suarez’s largest and most important sponsor Adidas Adidas announced yesterday they are keeping their star whom they signed to a long-term multi-million incentivized contract. Public relations spokesperson Michael Ehrlich responded in an emailed statement:  adidas fully supports FIFA’s decision. adidas certainly does not condone Luis Suarez’s recent behaviour and we will again be reminding him of the high standards we expect from our players. We have no plan to use Suarez for any additional marketing activities during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.  It’s a transgression from the company’s previous policy on violence. The shoemaker dropped singer Teyana Taylor after she had a spat with fellow pop star Rihanna and threatened her over social media. Then a representative for the company said that it doesn’t condone violence of any kind.  But that is how important soccer is to Adidas’ business. This week the company said it would definitely achieve its goal of at least € 2 billion ($2.7 billion) in sales in the soccer category for 2014. Suarez is obviously a major part of that plan.  Others are coming out in support of Suarez too. Uruguay’s FA President Wilmar Valdez hopes to make sure he is part of theirs. He said his country will appeal the ban, noting “It feels like Uruguay has been thrown out of the World Cup.”  Maybe the most unlikely? Chiellini. In a written statement he said:  Now inside me there’s no feelings of joy, revenge or anger against Suarez for an incident that happened on the pitch and that’s done…I have always considered unequivocal the disciplinary interventions by the competent bodies, but at the same time I believe that the proposed formula is excessive. I sincerely hope that he will be allowed, at least, to stay close to his team mates during the games because such a ban is really alienating for a player.  Hard to feel bad for an alienated Suarez though. He will remain one of the sports highest paid players, just on an extended vacation.
FIFA may have come down hard on Luis Suarez for biting an Italian opponent, but it doesn't look like it will hurt him financially.