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After FIFA issued a four-month ban from “any football-related activity,” Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez made his way back home to a hero’s welcome. Many prominent sports figures have spoken out in support of him over the past few days, but perhaps the most unlikely person is Giorgio Chiellini, the Italian defender whose shoulder felt the wrath of Suarez's teeth during Tuesday’s match.
According to CNN, Chiellini, called the ban “excessive." “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," he wrote on his website. Chiellini, who plays for Italian team Juventus, also wrote, "There only remains the anger and the disappointment about the match."
For some people, FIFA's punishment doesn’t go far enough. Over at The New York Times, Roger Cohen writes that while Suarez is a gifted striker, the punishment for incident with his “protuberant teeth” was “on the mild side.” Henry Winter, The Telegraph’s World Cup correspondent, was less restrained. Referring to Suarez as a “carnivore,” Winter writes that while FIFA have their own corruption issues to deal with, “for once Sepp Blatter’s organization deserves real praise. They got it right. They reflected the disgust.”