His latest victim called the ban excessive, Maradona suggested on Argentine TV FIFA might as well handcuff him and throw him in Guantanamo and the Uruguayan president suggested a hidden agenda. In banning Luis Suarez for nine international matches and all football related activity for a period of four months and fining him $100,000, FIFA made no provision for mandating the 27-year old Uruguayan to receive the professional help he so evidently requires. FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke stated Friday Suarez should seek treatment is clear evidence the governing body failed in this regard. I cant imagine a scenario in any of our major sports leagues where rehabilitation wasnt a significant aspect of any sanctioning handed down to a repeat offender. FIFA could learn much from the North American model where rehabilitation is an integral aspect of the disciplinary process. Which is a theme picked up by FIFPro, the players global union, who questioned why rehabilitation and professional support was not mandated by FIFA. The first part of that process is taking responsibility. Instead we learned this morning in his statement to the FIFA Disciplinary Panel, Suarez denied he deliberately bit Italys Giorgio Chiellini. "I lost my balance, making my body unstable and falling on top of my opponent. At that moment I hit my face against the player leaving a small bruise on my cheek and a strong pain in my teeth." During post-match comments to Uruguayan TV Suarez claimed Chiellini bumped into him with his shoulder. This is in stark contrast with video which clearly shows it was Suarez who initiated contact between the players. "Deliberate, intentional and without provocation," was the disciplinary panels conclusion. Which could be the same words used for the two previous Suarez suspensions for biting an opponent. The first of which occurred only months after the world witnessed his deliberate hand-ball in the final minute of Uruguays quarter-final match against Ghana. In doing so Suarez denied opportunity for an African nation to make it to the semifinals of a World Cup for the first time in competition history. In the referees match report from Tuesdays pivotal Group D encounter Marco Rodriguez admits neither he, nor of any of his assistants saw the incident and that that was reason why Suarez was not punished at the time. In time we may well look back at this as the tipping point for introducing video replays. During the FIFA congress which was held in the days leading up to the World Cup Sepp Blatter stunned all in attendance when he introduced the idea of allowing coaches through the course of a match two opportunities to challenge on-field decisions. Goal line technology was introduced for this World Cup as a consequence of not allowing the goal Frank Lampard scored in Englands Round-of-16 match against Germany at South Africa 2010. We saw GLTs worth only four days into Brazil 2014, when France was rightfully awarded a goal in their opening match against Honduras. Another distasteful aspect to all this is the way companies have looked to exploit for commercial gain one of the most unsavoury incidents in World Cup Finals history. The exception to this has been the online poker company who announced yesterday they had terminated their partnership with Suarez. A sizeable crowd of fans including the Uruguayan President had flocked to the airport in Montevideo in support of their ‘hero Thursday night in anticipation of his return home. However Suarez arrived back in Montevideo on a private jet in the early hours of Friday. Avoiding the fanfare and the spotlight in favour of anonymity might just be a first sign Suarez finally understands the full consequence of his irrational actions last Tuesday. Suarez now has to ignore the sentiment of a nation, the loyalty of his manager and the outpouring of sympathy he has received in favour of the wise words from Uruguays original football icon, Alcides Ghiggia. Ghiggia - who scored the winning goal for Uruguay when they beat Brazil in the 1950 World Cup Final - has been outspoken in his criticism of Suarez. Lets hope when Uruguay take to the pitch for the pre-match warm up ahead of Saturday afternoons Round-of-16 match against Colombia they dont wear t-shirts in support of Suarez, as Liverpool players did in December, 2011 when he was given an eight-match ban for racially abusing Manchester Uniteds Patrice Evra. Instead they hopefully counsel Suarez to admit the errors of his ways and take full responsibility. Only then can he begin the long journey back to the sanctuary of the football pitch. Noel.Butler@BellMedia.ca @TheSoccerNoel on Twitter TSN Radio is an official licensed radio broadcaster of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Check www.tsn.ca/radio for the broadcast schedule in your home town. Cheap Hockey Jerseys .com) - The Tennessee Titans agreed to terms with running back Jackie Battle on a one-year contract Friday. Fake Hockey Jerseys . The Brewers finalized a US$36 million, three-year contract with free agent third baseman Aramis Ramirez on Wednesday, adding a much-needed bat to their lineup. https://www.fakehockeyjerseys.com/ . "I just think what it does for everybody in life is real simple," said Babcock early on Friday afternoon. "You dont give in. You just keep on keeping on. Is it going to go your way every time? No. But you choose your attitude and how you perform and how hard you dig in." Nearly four years to the day of the 2010 gold medal match in Vancouver, his team dug in with its best effort of these Olympics, snuffing out the high-powered Americans for another opportunity at gold. Custom Hockey Jerseys . MORITZ, Switzerland -- Latvia won a four-man World Cup bobsled race Sunday, while the U. Cheap Hockey Jerseys Authentic . The 49ers announced the deal Tuesday. San Francisco selected Lloyd in the fourth round of the 2003 draft. TORONTO -- Dwane Casey saw it as a sign of maturity on the part of his young team. After a first half in which he thought "the lid was on the basket," the Toronto Raptors coach watched his squad mount a second half surge to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 98-91. "Thats another step in our growth," Casey said after Friday nights win at Air Canada Centre. "Last year at this time, if wed have missed shots like that wed have caved in. "But we kept grinding it, grinding it, grinding it and thats what you have to do when the shots arent falling." The Raptors (30-25) shot a woeful 32.7 per cent from the field in the first half and trailed 44-39. But, with second-year centre Jonas Valanciunas leading the way, Toronto shot an impressive 16-for 23, or 69.5 per cent, in the third quarter on the way to winning their fourth game in five starts. "We said we need to pick it up, we need to come out with energy," Valanciunas, who finished with 18 points and eight rebounds, said of the talk in the locker room at halftime. "Thats what it was all about. "We shot really bad the first half but we did a better job the second half and thats what matters." Valanciunas scored 10 of his 14 second-half points in the third quarter, including five in a row during a 4:07 stretch that saw the Raptors turn a one-point deficit into a 10-point lead. Second-year guard Terrence Ross had a team-high 20 points as the Raptors snapped the Cavaliers (22-34) six-game winning streak and widened their lead to 3-1/2 games over the idle Brooklyn Nets atop the NBAs Atlantic Division. With the win, the Raptors equalled the third-fastest time theyve reached the 30-win mark in team history, just one game off the best mark of 54 games in both the 2009-10 and 2007-08 seasons. The Raptors, who have missed the playoffs in each of the past five seasons, diidnt win their 30th game until their 78th outing last year.dddddddddddd Although Ross led the Raptors in scoring, it was his defensive play against Cleveland guard Kyrie Irving, who was named MVP of last weekends NBA All-Star Game, that drew rave reviews from his teammates. "Defensively, hes always been impressive, and hes getting better," Toronto guard Kyle Lowry said after Irving was held to 3-for-16 shooting on his way to 17 points. "I told him that on the bench tonight." Lowry had 14 points, nine assists and six rebounds. DeMar DeRozan added 14 points and five assists. Clevelands Luol Deng led all scorers with 21 points and added 11 rebounds while Tristan Thompson of Brampton, Ont., added 13 points and nine assists and Anthony Bennett, also from Brampton, who last spring became the first Canadian to ever go first overall in the NBA draft, had nine points in his first game here. "We just had to pick up our defensive intensity," Ross said of the message delivered at halftime. "The biggest thing, we were coming out, playing too lackadaisical and we had to pick that up." Toronto outscored Cleveland 37-21 in the third quarter to take control. Valanciunas made a layup with 7:22 to go in the quarter to put the Raptors up for good at 53-52. After Valanciunas and Amir Johnson combined for just four points in the first half, Casey said he gave the big men "a wake-up call" going into the second half and they responded at both ends of the court. "We reminded them theres more to the game than the offensive end," Casey said. "You can get rebounds. You can get back in transition. You can challenge shots and you can go vertical. "You can do a lot of different things other than make shots and I thought the second half (they) worked at it and got it done." ' ' '