Suarez's lawyer confident four month ban will be reduced

Friday will be a key day for Luis Suarez: The Uruguayan is going to Switzerland to have his fate decided by the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport). And Daniel Cravo, the lawyer who represents the Uruguayan Football Federation, has told Brazil's Radio Globo that he believes the four month sanction will be reduced by the Swiss court.

Daniel Cravo understands that there is a technical error in Suarez's punishment, suggesting that FIFA were wrong to consider the the player's previous sanctions in Holland and England.

For the lawyer, what Suarez did was less serious than some violent tackles, which can leave opposition players out of action for several months. "I think FIFA wanted to show they could take action. There was a dissatisfaction with how other incidents had been treated in the World Cup and Suarez paid for them. Not even the sanction of [Zinedine] Zidane in 2006 or those of Leonardo and [Mauro] Tassotti in 1994 were as severe. Is the Suarez incident the worst in the history of the World Cup?," questioned the lawyer.

Cravo was contracted by the Uruguayan Federation to try and reduce the nine-match ban Suarez was handed for international football, because, according to Cravo, the four months will be reduced. "I believe that the sanction which affects his work at a club level will be revoked. There is no precedent in history to justify it. Also, I am going to try and reduce his ban with Uruguay. Nine games is too much and would stop him from playing until 2016," he explained.

With plenty of international experience representing Brazilian clubs, and also CONMEBOL, the lawyer sees the actions of the CAS differently to FIFA. "[The CAS] is totally different and on various occasions they have taken completely different decisions to those which have been taken by FIFA. Also, Suarez's sanction was imposed by FIFA, that until now have taken the role of a judge. Now, they are only one of the parties involved," he finished.