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Headcase: Why Brandao's butt is worse than
Suarez's bite
COMMENT: The Brazilian striker will not be
treated leniently following his assault on Thiago
Motta - and he does not deserve to be
Aug 18, 2014 16:50:00
By Robin Bairner
In what has been a
lamentable summer for
Brazilian strikers, Brandao
plumbed a new low at Parc
des Princes on Saturday
where his premeditated
post-match headbutt on Paris Saint-Germain’s
Thiago Motta made unwelcome news for Bastia.
While Fred and Jo floundered at the World Cup, Luis
Suarez grabbed the headlines with his bite on
Giorgio Chiellini, which has rendered the Uruguayan
unable to play competitively for four months owing
to a ban imposed by Fifa and subsequently backed
by CAS.
Brandao, who was granted French citizenship in an
attempt to force his way to the summer’s
competition in his birthland under the banner of
Didier Deschamps’ side, deserves an even more
severe punishment.
Suarez might have been caught biting an opponent
for a third time, but his offence - as unnaceptable as
it may have been - was a reaction in the heat of
battle, leaving little more than teeth marks on the
shoulder of the Juventus centre-back.
His South American compatriot cannot plead a
similar defence. Thiago Motta, unlike his Italy
colleague, is liable to miss several matches after his
broken nose was confirmed by medical staff.
Substituted out of the game after 72 minutes, the
forward, who had been given a rough ride by the
capital crowd owing to his past as a Marseille player,
had time to calm himself down on the bench.
Instead, the man who once scored a dramatic late
winner in a last-16 Champions League tie against
Inter allowed resentment to grow and in the tunnel
after the match, while many of his team-mates were
still on the pitch swapping jerseys, he waited in the
tunnel for the PSG midfielder. He then landed a
headbutt before cowardly scuttling away to the
dressing room while his opponent was left bloody-
nosed.
Pain game | Brandao's butt did far more damage
than Suarez's bite
The public nature of the incident meant that it was
caught on camera and spread virally on social
media over the course of the evening.
“Brandao should be suspended for life - he is not a
football player,” PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi
told Canal+ moments after the blow was landed,
not yet aware that an illicit challenge from the same
player had left right-back Gregory van der Wiel with
a fractured vertebrae.
Injured PSG captain Thiago Silva, one of the few
players in the vicinity, was equally incensed, taking
to Instagram later in the evening to question: “I
want to know how many matches this guy will be
suspended for?
“If I got three matches two years ago for touching
the referee, imagine something like that? The fourth
official saw everything, I was by his side when this
guy attacked our player.”
Bastia, meanwhile, have refused to be drawn too
heavily into the row, arguing that the comportment
of Thiago Motta on the field was just as
reprehensible as Brandao’s attack.
“We lament the equally unacceptable behaviour of
some players, who are constantly insulting and
provoking their opponents,” the Furiani club stated
in a press release, caveating their relative support of
their forward by noting that they would reserve the
right to take further action once the relevant
authorities had made their decisions.
"Brandao should be suspended for life. He is
not a football player"
- Nasser Al-Khelaifi
This has infuriated Thiago Motta's camp, with the
player allegedly yet to receive an apology from
Brandao or Bastia.
“I’m surprised by some of the official statements
made by Bastia and its employees. The surprise is
even greater because neither the player nor the
club have apologised yet to Thiago Motta or to PSG,"
Motta's agent Alessandro Canovi told Goal.
"I think it’s nonsense and very hypocritical to act as
if Thiago Motta had been provoking [Brandao] in
order to justify the fact he was the victim of a
cowardly ambush.
"I’m also saddened by the fact that there is another
victim in this story; the audience, especially the
youngest viewers, who have witnessed the scene on
television and on social networks. This is a
premeditated and violent act that I still consider as
a true ambush.”
For Brandao, who is no stranger to controversy
after being wrongly arrested for sexual assault in
2011, it could be the beginning of the end of his
career. The Disciplinary Committee of Ligue 1 tend
to take a harsh line on such incidents, with erstwhile
Saint-Etienne defender Kurt Zouma suspended for
10 matches last term following a clumsy challenge
that left Sochaux winger Thomas Guerbert with a
broken ankle. A premeditated attack such as this
one could see a ban of up to two years.
While it is unlikely that the committee will choose to
suspend the 34-year-old for such a lengthy period, it
is entirely possible that they preclude his
participation in competitive football until 2015,
forcing Bastia back into the transfer market and
giving them the ammunition to sack a player
expected to be central to their offensive plans this
season.
PSG have elected not to press charges with the
police, who are set to conduct their own
investigation into events, but it seems that Al-
Khelaifi’s wish that Brandao does not step foot onto
a French football pitch in the future may yet
manifest itself.
Suarez's bite
COMMENT: The Brazilian striker will not be
treated leniently following his assault on Thiago
Motta - and he does not deserve to be
Aug 18, 2014 16:50:00
By Robin Bairner
In what has been a
lamentable summer for
Brazilian strikers, Brandao
plumbed a new low at Parc
des Princes on Saturday
where his premeditated
post-match headbutt on Paris Saint-Germain’s
Thiago Motta made unwelcome news for Bastia.
While Fred and Jo floundered at the World Cup, Luis
Suarez grabbed the headlines with his bite on
Giorgio Chiellini, which has rendered the Uruguayan
unable to play competitively for four months owing
to a ban imposed by Fifa and subsequently backed
by CAS.
Brandao, who was granted French citizenship in an
attempt to force his way to the summer’s
competition in his birthland under the banner of
Didier Deschamps’ side, deserves an even more
severe punishment.
Suarez might have been caught biting an opponent
for a third time, but his offence - as unnaceptable as
it may have been - was a reaction in the heat of
battle, leaving little more than teeth marks on the
shoulder of the Juventus centre-back.
His South American compatriot cannot plead a
similar defence. Thiago Motta, unlike his Italy
colleague, is liable to miss several matches after his
broken nose was confirmed by medical staff.
Substituted out of the game after 72 minutes, the
forward, who had been given a rough ride by the
capital crowd owing to his past as a Marseille player,
had time to calm himself down on the bench.
Instead, the man who once scored a dramatic late
winner in a last-16 Champions League tie against
Inter allowed resentment to grow and in the tunnel
after the match, while many of his team-mates were
still on the pitch swapping jerseys, he waited in the
tunnel for the PSG midfielder. He then landed a
headbutt before cowardly scuttling away to the
dressing room while his opponent was left bloody-
nosed.
Pain game | Brandao's butt did far more damage
than Suarez's bite
The public nature of the incident meant that it was
caught on camera and spread virally on social
media over the course of the evening.
“Brandao should be suspended for life - he is not a
football player,” PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi
told Canal+ moments after the blow was landed,
not yet aware that an illicit challenge from the same
player had left right-back Gregory van der Wiel with
a fractured vertebrae.
Injured PSG captain Thiago Silva, one of the few
players in the vicinity, was equally incensed, taking
to Instagram later in the evening to question: “I
want to know how many matches this guy will be
suspended for?
“If I got three matches two years ago for touching
the referee, imagine something like that? The fourth
official saw everything, I was by his side when this
guy attacked our player.”
Bastia, meanwhile, have refused to be drawn too
heavily into the row, arguing that the comportment
of Thiago Motta on the field was just as
reprehensible as Brandao’s attack.
“We lament the equally unacceptable behaviour of
some players, who are constantly insulting and
provoking their opponents,” the Furiani club stated
in a press release, caveating their relative support of
their forward by noting that they would reserve the
right to take further action once the relevant
authorities had made their decisions.
"Brandao should be suspended for life. He is
not a football player"
- Nasser Al-Khelaifi
This has infuriated Thiago Motta's camp, with the
player allegedly yet to receive an apology from
Brandao or Bastia.
“I’m surprised by some of the official statements
made by Bastia and its employees. The surprise is
even greater because neither the player nor the
club have apologised yet to Thiago Motta or to PSG,"
Motta's agent Alessandro Canovi told Goal.
"I think it’s nonsense and very hypocritical to act as
if Thiago Motta had been provoking [Brandao] in
order to justify the fact he was the victim of a
cowardly ambush.
"I’m also saddened by the fact that there is another
victim in this story; the audience, especially the
youngest viewers, who have witnessed the scene on
television and on social networks. This is a
premeditated and violent act that I still consider as
a true ambush.”
For Brandao, who is no stranger to controversy
after being wrongly arrested for sexual assault in
2011, it could be the beginning of the end of his
career. The Disciplinary Committee of Ligue 1 tend
to take a harsh line on such incidents, with erstwhile
Saint-Etienne defender Kurt Zouma suspended for
10 matches last term following a clumsy challenge
that left Sochaux winger Thomas Guerbert with a
broken ankle. A premeditated attack such as this
one could see a ban of up to two years.
While it is unlikely that the committee will choose to
suspend the 34-year-old for such a lengthy period, it
is entirely possible that they preclude his
participation in competitive football until 2015,
forcing Bastia back into the transfer market and
giving them the ammunition to sack a player
expected to be central to their offensive plans this
season.
PSG have elected not to press charges with the
police, who are set to conduct their own
investigation into events, but it seems that Al-
Khelaifi’s wish that Brandao does not step foot onto
a French football pitch in the future may yet
manifest itself.