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The Luis Suárez-Patrice Evra case was not a simple one but the FA made a bold statement by banning him for eight games

Rightly or wrongly, there was a feeling before the verdict was announced, that if Luis Suárez was found guilty, it was an opportunity for the Football Association to send out a powerful message. This was the governing body’s chance to impose the sort of ban and fine that would make players up and down the country, as well as the game’s key decision-makers, realise how seriously the FA views racism. Now the Uruguayan has been banned for eight matches and fined £40,000, the FA has done just that.

The FA’s strong stance was welcomed by Kick It Out, its chair Lord Herman Ouseleysaying: “The FA has shown leadership and intent through what has clearly been a difficult and complex complaint to deal with, and invested time and expertise to ensure this outcome. It has demonstrated that it will not stand for discrimination, something organisations such as Fifa and Uefa should take heed of. Kick It Out will continue to work with clubs and players, at professional and grass roots level, offering education on what is deemed offensive and unacceptable behaviour.”

English football has worked hard to eradicate racism and great strides have been made since the bleak days of the 1980s, when the former Liverpool winger John Barnes recalls “there wasn’t a game when you didn’t get racial abuse as a black player”. Yet the two controversial cases that arose within eight days of each other in October, involving Patrice Evra and Suárez and Anton Ferdinand and John Terry, left the FA with two high-profile investigations on its hands and prompted wider discussions about the prevalence of racism in the domestic game.

Not everyone came out of the debate that followed with their reputation enhanced. Sepp Blatter dug himself into a hole that ought to have cost him his job as Fifa president, while Gus Poyet did himself no favours when he suggested players should turn a deaf ear to whatever is said to them on the pitch. “I played football for seven years in Spain and was called everything because I was from South America, and I never went out crying like a baby, like Patrice Evra, saying that someone had something to me,” the Brighton & Hove Albion manager said.

Those complaining at the length of time the investigations have dragged on were ignoring the complexities of cases that were never going to be resolved in a matter of days or, as Blatter would like, with a handshake at the final whistle. Only this week the Crown Prosecution Service revealed that further evidence had been received in relation to the allegation that Terry racially abused Ferdinand during Chelsea’s 1-0 defeat against Queens Park Rangers in October.

Evra-Suárez has been anything but straightforward, in part because of the fact that it has been one man’s word against another but also due to the cultural differences and linguistic nuances that have muddied the waters when it comes to deciding whether the word “negro”, which is regarded as extremely offensive in England, has the same meaning in South America. Suárez’s defence was understood to have pointed to the nuances of the Spanish language, as well as cultural differences.

More significant was whether Suárez, after four years living in northern Europe, should have an understanding of what is and is not acceptable. What is clear is that the controversial incidents that surfaced in October, at Anfield and Loftus Road, presented the FA with a headache that it could have done without. Racism allegations are always going to be a sensitive issue but the involvement of two of the most powerful clubs in the country, Liverpool and Manchester United, and the England captain, Terry, has placed the governing body under the microscope.

“Hopefully an 8 game ban & £40k fine will deter players from racially abusing an opponent from now on!” tweeted the former Crystal Palace striker Mark Bright. “About time strong action was taken!”

The FA has had racism allegations to deal with in the past but the protagonists have been nothing like as high profile. There was certainly nothing like the same level of media scrutiny when,

Today’s mill is not afraid to shake its booty

Bright, noisy, dripping in gold and not afraid to shake their booty at passing strangers, it can be hard sometimes to tell the difference between Manchester United’s summer transfer policy and Glastonbury headliner Beyoncé. United’s summer of rampant spending looks set to continue with a £6.5m deal for Celtic left-back Emilio Izaguirre — “100% true”, says the player — followed by a £10m move for Barcelona’s European-Under-21-final-free-kick-scoring Thiago Alcântara.

Barcelona are happy to sell him to a Premier League club, the Mirror reports, but only if they can have a buy-back clause inserted into the deal. United aren’t keen on that and as a result look set to lose the player, possibly to Bolton. Well if they liked him they shoulda but a ring on him. Alcântara may in fact end up at Arsenal as a makeweight in the Cesc Fábregas deal, though the Telegraph reckons that Barça are preparing a £31m straight-cash offer for the midfielder that should land on a desk in north London sometime today.

Did anyone else notice, by the way, that Beyoncé’s final words at the end of her Glastonbury set were “drive home safely”? Was that the least rock’n'roll moment in the entire history of rock’n'roll? Other, that is, than the moment Saturday headliners Coldplay submitted a rider rumoured to have included “an assortment of vegetarian, gluten-free dips”. Anyway, we digress. More relevant Glasto talk: Wayne Rooney apparently spent three hours in a drum’n'bass tent and is reported to have been “chuffed” after meeting Mumford & Sons.

Spanish winger Juan Mata has leapt to the top of Arsenal’s transfer wish-list. The 23-year-old has also been linked with Liverpool, but Kenny Dalglish has apparently shifted his focus to Tottenham’s Neil Lennon, though they’ll have to stump up £18m either way. Talking of Arsenal, their other main target, the Vélez Sársfield midfielder Ricardo Alvarez, might now go to the equally interested Internazionale instead.

Talking of Spurs, it looks like Giovani dos Santos is heading to Spain, though Tottenham want a fairly ambitious £6.5m for the man who has started just nine games for the club in three years and can’t find anyone who wants to pay it – it might help if they show potential bidders his goal in Saturday’s Gold Cup final.

Talking of £18m-rated left wingers, Chelsea have been told they can have Arda Turan from Galatasaray, but only if the Turks get £7m and Didier Drogba in return. If Drogba does go the Blues might hang on to Daniel Sturridge, which would disappoint West Bromwich Albion, Bolton, Newcastle and Stoke.

Stoke’s Matthew Etherington has jumped to the top of Aston Villa’s list of replacements for the departing Stewart Downing, though with James Milner, Charles N’Zogbia, Matt Jarvis and Den Haag’s Wesley Verhoek also there, it’s a pretty chunky list. Downing, incidentally, will hand in a transfer request this week to force through a move to Liverpool, for whom Charlie Adam could sign today (with Jonjo Shelvey heading to Blackpool for a season-long loan).

Bolton are ready to lavish a combined £6m on Benfica winger Rodrigo and Middlesbrough defender Rhys Williams.

Stoke — three mentions in one Mill: what are the odds? — whose back-up keeper Thomas Sorensen could be on his way to West Ham, want £4m-rated Monaco defender Cédric Mongongu. They have also made a complicated double bid for Birmingham duo Scott Dann and Cameron Jerome. Tony Pulis has proposed an £8m initial fee, with all sorts of bonus clauses meaning the fee might so much as double before the Potters have finished paying out. For that to happen, however, both players would have to earn international recognition, Stoke would have to break into the Premier League’s top six and Andy Murray’s collection of Percy Pig sweets would have to sprout wings and fly to the moon.

Craig Gardner is also likely to leave Birmingham, with Sunderland — who are also preparing a £7m bid for Reading’s Shane Long — Wolves and Newcastle — who also want the Paris St-Germain striker Mevlüt Erdinc — scrapping over the goalscoring midfielder. Possibly coming to the Blues is Hibernian manager Colin Calderwood, who Chris Hughton wants to make his assistant (though he might end up taking Dann’s place in defence at this rate).

Manchester City’s megabucks transfer targets of the day are Fiorentina midfielder Alessio Cerci, Partizan Belgrade defender Stefan Savic and the Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero. But trumping them all is Porto’s comedy-named striker Hulk, upon whom a £36m price tag has just been slapped.

And most likely recipient of QPR’s squillions of the day is 37-year-old World Cup winning Italian centre-back legend Fabio Cannavaro.

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Today’s fluff still loves Shine 97

It’s Monday morning at 5.19, and the Mill is still wondering where you’ve been. Because every time we try to call, we just get your machine. And now it’s almost 6am, and we don’t want to try again. Because if you’re still not back, heaven knows, what then? Maybe we can distract ourselves with some tittle-tattle (and try to forget the fact that a) the Mill was struggling so badly for a riff this morning that we resorted to simply typing the lyrics of Rialto’s 1997 hit Monday Morning 5:19 and b) that we didn’t need to look the lyrics up).

Manchester United and Everton are battling it out to sign Bob Schepers, who sounds like he should be presenting a documentary about farming on Radio 4, but is in fact a 17-year-old Dutch winger for SC Cambuur. He played in Holland U17’s run to the European Championship final, and is also making a small blipping noise “on Ajax’s radar”.

Chelsea have £50m to spend this summer and it’ll all go on Kaká. Or Fernando Torres. Or Sergio Agüero. Or Bastian Schweinsteiger. Or possibly Dani Alves, who has also been linked with Manchester City in the Spanish newspaper Sport.

Liverpool have dipped for the line and pipped Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal in the race for Charlton’s Jonjo Shelvey. As Rafa Benítez waves to the crowd from the top of the podium, a faceless man in a suit hands him a bunch of flowers and drapes the £3m-rated teenage utility man around the Liverpool manager’s neck.

And to complete the contractually-obliged big four round-up, Arsenal were rather laughably linked with a move for Pepe Reina over the weekend.

Elsewhere, West Brom will bolster their Premier League survival bid next season by signing two players who failed to keep their teams up in this campaign. Hull’s Jimmy Bullard and Burnley’s Steven Fletcher are the smart buys.

Steve Coppell wants to turn the 2010-11 Bristol City side into the 2007-08 Reading team. The signings of Dave Kitson, Ivar Ingimarsson and James Harper will be the easy part. Bringing in blue and white hoops might be a little trickier.

It’s Everton v Blackburn for Getafe’s £10m-rated striker Roberto Soldado.

Wigan will move for Celtic’s Marc Crosas over the summer and will subtly attempt to placate sceptical Latics fans by continually describing him as “a former Barcelona and Lyon midfielder” on the club website.

And Paris St-Germain have a hankering for dynamic but erratic full-backs and will satisfy their hunger by snapping up West Ham’s Henry Ilunga and Portsmouth’s Nadir Belhadj.

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