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There was little sympathy for the Liverpool striker after his eight-match ban, with the club and manager facing criticism too

The media’s reaction to Luis Suárez’s eight-match ban and £40,000 fine for racially abusing Manchester United’s Patrice Evra has been frenetic and largely unsympathetic towards the Liverpool striker. “Guilty” screams the Daily Mail’s back page. “Racist” is the choice of headline in the Daily Mirror, while the Daily Express simply chooses the word “Banned”.

Columnists, now free from having to write around a complex and drawn-out case that has rumbled on since Patrice Evra brought Suárez’s comments to the world’s attention after Manchester United’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool at Anfield on 15 October, have largely backed the FA’s hardline stance and pointed the finger of blame at Suárez and Liverpool.

The Daily Mirror’s Merseyside correspondent, David Maddock, believes the implications for Liverpool, who issued a robust statement in defence of their Uruguayan striker after the FA delivered its verdict, could not only damage the team, but also the reputation of the manager, Kenny Dalglish, whose picture appears online with the headline “Betrayed” written above it.

“For a club of such standing, of such dignified history, to have their star player condemned for such a serious offence by the FA after they had defended him so vehemently strikes at the heart of their very credibility,” Maddock writes. “Questions must also be asked as to why the club was so swift to accept their player’s explanation of events on that fateful October afternoon when Evra first made his allegations. There was no internal enquiry into the incident, and Dalglish will feel betrayed, as his own reputation is hauled over the coals, along with that of his club, because he had every right to expect the player to give him the full facts. He also had every right to expect more of Suárez.”

Paul Joyce in the Daily Express believes the guilty verdict will stick with Suárez throughout the rest of his career. “The stain on his character is one he will struggle to shift. It is that stigma which will be more hurtful than the unprecedented eight-match ban he received.” Liverpool’s unflinching support of their striker is also questioned. “Liverpool must now tread carefully. The continuing unequivocal support for Suárez comes without any apparent acceptance that he did not need to become involved with Evra. That he could simply have turned the other cheek.”

Joyce’s colleague John Dillon is much more scathing in his criticism of Suárez and paints a picture of the FA as courageous. “After all the good work aimed at eradicating racism from English football, they had no other choice. They didn’t bottle it,” he writes before dismissing the argument that cultural differences should have been taken into account when determining Suárez’s guilt. “Another of the blurred edges here has been the attempt to portray what Suárez did as little more than a cultural aberration … it doesn’t wash. Suárez is living in our culture now. There are hundreds of English footballers who would not perceive the cultural nuances of Suárez’s words and should in no way be expected to understand them.”

“Negro or negrito, it doesn’t really matter now. Sometimes it’s not what you say so much as how you say it, and how many times you do so,” writes James Lawton in the Independent. “The gut instinct here is that a difficult but vital stand has been made. And, you may ask, against what precisely? Hopefully, it is the idea that racism, however it manifests itself, is in English football not consigned to the past.”

Henry Winter in the Daily Telegraph shows Suárez little sympathy, despite accepting the FA’s difficulty in arriving at a judgment due to the “complexities of the case”. “Suárez claimed that what he said to Evra was not racist, merely a descriptive epithet, but for somebody who has lived in northern Europe for four years, including three years in Holland with Ajax, the Liverpool striker should have understood the sensitivity towards the word ‘negro’.”

Ian Ladyman in the Daily Mail believes Dalglish has made himself vulnerable by being overtly supportive of his striker and believes he would be best advised to take a disciplined stance with Suárez. “Liverpool’s manager ought to be taking stock of exactly what it [the ban and fine] means … He [Dalglish] now has a responsibility to Liverpool and indeed to football to ensure that Suárez understands the grave nature of the offence. As Liverpool manager he is right to stand by his player. He knows Suárez better than most. But Dalglish must also do what he can to ensure this never happens again.”

One of the few sympathetic voices in the immediate aftermath of the guilty verdict came from the Liverpool Echo’s James Pearce. “Not one of Evra’s team-mates came forward to back up his serious allegations, including goalkeeper David De Gea, who speaks Spanish. Suárez, for his part, admitted to saying: ‘Why, negro?’ to Evra on one occasion after Evra said: ‘Don’t touch me, you South American.’ The word ‘negro’ is Spanish for black and in his native South America it is not deemed to be offensive. Someone with black hair is often called that without any malice intended … strangely, those linguistic and cultural differences appear to have carried little weight with the commission.”

Luis SuárezLiverpoolGregg Roughleyguardian.co.uk

Soccer has thrown up few films of value, and this picture by an American director and writer is among the worst. An 11-year-old Liverpool FC fanatic living in a Catholic orphanage is reunited with his football-crazy dad (Damian Lewis), who promises him a trip to see his team play in the 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul. Then Dad dies and the intrepid, now twice-orphaned kid sets out alone and, helped along the way by a former Bosnian soccer star, some Liverpool fans and Kenny Dalglish, achieves his ambition. It’s a silly symphony of embarrassment, a sentimental journey along a road paved not with yellow bricks but red cards.

Bob HoskinsDramaLiverpoolKenny DalglishPhilip Frenchguardian.co.uk

• Consultant King brought investors to Notts County
• ‘There are extensive requests from board members’

Russell King claims to have received “extensive ongoing requests from members of the board asking for assistance” in selling Liverpool. King was the consultant who brought the “consortium of Middle Eastern and European investors” – and Sven-Goran Eriksson – to Notts County last year, and whose involvement caused the Football League not to pass the takeover as fit and proper.

Soon afterwards the entire club went into crisis, nearly collapsing under the £6m debt it ran up in little more than six months. Digger can reveal that King had previously been involved in Liverpool’s search for investment from Dubai in 2006. He says he was asked to attend a meeting with a director of a company belonging to Sheikh Mohammed, the emir of Dubai. Subsequently, and in continuation of that meeting, King claims, the Liverpool board then pursued the aborted deal with Dubai International Capital.

Others familiar with the situation say Liverpool board members travelled out to meet him in Dubai in 2006 and that it quickly became clear he could not fulfil the promise of an introduction to the sheikh, whereupon they broke off contact. Now, claims King, the current board has been in touch. He said: “The board in no way broke contact and there are extensive ongoing requests from members of the board asking for assistance.”

The board declined to comment last night but an insider in the sale process stressed King has no official involvement. However, given the increasing desperation of the situation, Digger would not put it past someone getting in touch to ask for help.

Yeovil vote of confidence

The Yeovil Town Football Club customer charter states under its section on consultation and information: “The club has and will continue to develop ways of consulting with shareholders, sponsors, season-ticket holders and other interested parties.”

Unfortunately, Digger has been unable to benefit from those developments, with repeated requests for dialogue with the chairman, John Fry, about the separation of its property assets from the football operation having fallen on deaf ears.

However, reassurance for Yeovil fans about that reorganisation comes from Andrew Lindsay, of Denison Till, the consultant on the transaction. Lindsay states that he has known a few “rum directors” in football in the past – haven’t we all – but that Fry and his Yeovil co-owner, Norman Hayward, do not fall in that category.

“These guys only want a better stadium and better facilities for Yeovil,” he said. “They’re potty for the club and want it to do well.” Which is to be hoped. Digger only wishes the deal could have been structured with Yeovil Town retaining the shares in the new arm’s-length company and not Fry and Hayward themselves.

Sky defends banner

Sky Sports has been forced to explain its actions in superimposing an image of Roy Hodgson, right, on an iconic banner featuring the silhouettes of Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Kenny Dalglish and Rafael Benítez.

There were complaints from fans who considered the addition of the former Fulham manager to that company to have been disrespectful to the terrace artist behind the “Success has many fathers” banner and to its subjects.

But Sky emailed complainants in an effort to make clear that the feature that included the image was intended as a tribute to the club’s great history.

Sky told Digger: “We believe the piece was supportive of the club, its past managers, its traditions, and its future. And we hope that when viewed in context this, and the creative use of the banner, is clear.”

Producers are likely to go easy on the symbolism next time.

Elite push tax break

Tax advisers to some of the world’s top sport stars are in talks with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport seeking reform of the tax system that has prompted athletes such as Usain Bolt not to come to the UK to compete at events. Pete Hackleton, of RSM Tenon, says DCMS has been “very helpful”. Digger does not doubt it. But Bolt should not expect Danny Alexander and George Osborne at the Treasury to share its view.

LiverpoolBusinessMatt Scottguardian.co.uk