Uruguay striker Luis Suarez says he has no regrets for his handball world cup 12 years ago against Ghana
Glyn Kirk
Text size
Uruguayan great Luis Suarez on Thursday refused to apologize to the Ghanaians for his infamous handball at the World Cup 12 years ago.
The South Americans take on the Africans in an unmissable Group H clash in Qatar on Friday which is a repeat of the famous quarter-final in South Africa in 2010.
Suarez deliberately handled the ball on the line in this tournament to prevent a certain Dominic Adiyiah’s headed goal at the end of extra time.
Suarez received a red card but Asamoah Gyan missed the ensuing penalty and Uruguay won the shootout and progressed to the semi-finals.
Striker Suarez became an overnight hero in his homeland as Ghana missed out on becoming the first-ever African side to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Twelve years later, when asked if he knew that Ghanaians consider him the ‘devil’, Suarez replied that he had no regrets.
“I’m not saying I apologize for this because I take the handball but the Ghanaian player missed the penalty, not me,” Suarez said, speaking in broken English.
“Maybe I can say I apologize if I tackle and injure a player and get a red card, maybe I can apologise.
“But in this situation I take a red card, the referee said ‘penalty’. It’s not my fault because I didn’t miss the penalty, the player missed the penalty.”
There has been a lot of talk since the World Cup draw that Ghana were potentially looking for revenge and many fans of the African team expressed their anger at Suarez ahead of the clash.
But Suarez insisted gambling was a thing of the past and it made no sense to talk about revenge.
“Those who talk about revenge… there were eight at the time, they only saw it in pictures,” said the former Barcelona and Liverpool striker, now 35.
“You can’t interpret everything wrong. When we played against Portugal, the players were talking about revenge for being knocked out (by Uruguay in 2018) but you can’t live in the past.
Uruguay coach Diego Alonso said there was much more at stake for both sides than revenge.
Uruguay must win to have a chance of advancing to the knockout stages while Ghana could also be eliminated if they do not triumph.
“I don’t know how Ghana are going to approach this, whether it’s a rematch or not,” Alonso said.
“For us, it’s a decisive game, that’s what matters to us. We do the best we can, respecting our opponents, but we don’t see it that way.”
BC/JW
Comments are closed.