URUGUAYAN STRIKER Luis Suarez has confessed to diving for Liverpool in the Premier League this season.
The 25-year-old has been in superb form for the famous club this season, scoring 15 goals in his 21 league appearances.
But controversy has often followed Suarez, with the forward accused of several dives in the current campaign. One of those came in a goalless draw against Stoke City on 7 October, with opposing manager Tony Pulis calling for a suspension.
And Suarez admitted he simulated in the match in an interview with Fox Sports in Argentina.
“I don’t listen all the nonsense some people say about me I’m accused of cheating here,” Suarez said. “People say I throw myself all the time inside the box. They said that when we played against Stoke, for instance, and in that case they were right.
“I invented a foul because we were drawing and I wanted to win. Sometimes on the pitch I say to myself, ‘What have I done?’ But the name of Suarez sells papers.”
Earlier in January, a goal from Suarez – scored in a 2-1 FA Cup win against non-league outfit Mansfield Town – came via his hand. And although he had little time to react to the ball being booted against him, some claimed his act was deliberate while his reaction to the goal – where he kissed his hand, which is a regular mode of celebration for him – was also criticised.
“I touched the ball with my hand accidentally,” he said. ”And I was criticised because I kissed my hand. I say to the media: you should talk more about football, not about other stuff.”
Suarez – who was suspended for eight matches last season for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra – also used the interview to claim that the Old Trafford outfit were in charge of the English media.
“When someone comes and says to me something bad about being a South American, I don’t cry, because that happens inside the pitch,” he said.
“I have my conscience clean. But as I have said, Manchester United controls the media, they are powerful and the media will always help them.
“It’s complicated to play here in England. As Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero have said, it’s complicated for a South American footballer to be here as we are treated differently to the local footballers.”
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