Suarez to appeal 'fascist' bite ban - lawyer

MADRID - Uruguyan striker Luis Suarez will appeal a "fascist' four-month ban for biting a World Cup rival, his lawyer said Friday.

FIFA had rejected an appeal the previous day by Uruguay and the 27-year-old over the severity of his punishment.

But now Suarez is going to the Court of Arbtritration for Sport (CAS) to try to reduce his sanction for biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini in a Group D game on June 24, his lawyer said.

"We knew the decision of the corporation that is FIFA would not be favourable," the player's lawyer Alejandro Balbi told Spanish radio Cope.

"We are going to appeal to the CAS. We are going to actually do it in the next few hours," the lawyer added.

Balbi said he hoped the sports tribunal would revoke "a draconian sanction, which is of a totalitarian and fascist hue, by any reckoning".

Hours after the interview, Barcelona announced they had bought Suarez from Liverpool, signing him for five seasons despite the biting uproar.

Neither club gave financial details of the signing, which Spanish media said was worth 81 million euros ($110 million).

Suarez had initially denied any wrongdoing in the biting. He later issued an apology admitting Chiellini had "suffered the physical result of a bite" as a result of Suarez's actions.

It was the third time Suarez had been found guilty of biting an opponent in his career.

If FIFA's four-month ban on all football activity is upheld, Suarez will not play football again until late October.

A nine-match international ban also means he will miss all or most of Uruguay's campaign in the 2015 Copa America.

Balbi said he regreted that FIFA's disciplinary committee had failed to take into account Suarez's apology.

"We think it was an important element. But we have seen it mattered little to the gentlemen of FIFA that he had confessed and repented," he said.

"The nine matches could seem over the top. But not being able to see a game of football, or train and carry out your work, is extremely unpleasant," Balbi added.