Luis Suárez hit with lengthy suspension for spitting

Luis Suárez received a hefty punishment Friday after the Leagues Cup disciplinary committee reviewed the ugly scenes that followed Sunday’s tournament final between Inter Miami and the Seattle Sounders.

Suárez was given a six-game suspension from Leagues Cup play after spitting on Sounders head of security Gene Ramirez amid a post-match scuffle that broke out after Seattle claimed a 3-0 win.

‘Following the conclusion of the match, Inter Miami CF player Luis Suárez was reported by the Match Officials for spitting at a Seattle Sounders coaching staff member,’ read a statement from the Leagues Cup disciplinary committee. ‘In accordance with Article 4.2.C of the Leagues Cup 2025 Competition Regulations, the Disciplinary Committee has issued a six-match suspension to Suárez.’

While the Leagues Cup format has changed multiple times, the 2025 format offered a given team a maximum of six matches. The Disciplinary Committee statement announcing the punishment said that Suárez’s suspension renders him ‘ineligible to participate in the next edition of Leagues Cup until the six-match suspension is fully served,’ underlining what is in effect a minimum one-year ban from the tournament.

Notably, Friday’s announcement does not apply to MLS regular season play, leaving him eligible to play for the Herons in their next game, a Sept. 13 trip north to face Charlotte FC.

Suárez was not the only player to face sanctions for the chaos that ensued after the full time whistle at Lumen Field last weekend. Two more Inter Miami players were given suspensions, with Sergio Busquets getting a two-game ban for violent conduct after striking Seattle’s Obed Vargas. Defender Tomás Avilés will be suspended for three games, while Seattle assistant coach Steven Lenhart will be barred from the Sounders’ next five Leagues Cup matches.

As is the case with Suárez, all of Friday’s punishments apply to the Leagues Cup only. However, the announcement’s final sentence noted that MLS ‘reserves the right to impose further disciplinary actions on the players and coaching staff involved.’

Suspensions in soccer generally apply only to the tournament or competition that the negative actions took place in, but there is precedent for a Leagues Cup incident to lead to an MLS suspension. In 2019, Real Salt Lake head coach Mike Petke was given three-game suspensions in both the Leagues Cup and in MLS for language directed at referees that commissioner Don Garber deemed ‘repugnant.’

Back in 2015, Clint Dempsey tore up a referee’s notebook in a fiery U.S. Open Cup match playing for Seattle, receiving a six-game ban in that tournament as well as a three-game suspension from MLS play.

On Thursday, Suárez took to social media to offer an apology for the incident, calling the incident ‘a moment of great tension and frustration,’ adding that he felt ‘bad about what happened.’ Suárez did not mention Ramirez or anyone else by name, though he did congratulate Seattle for winning.

The scenes in Seattle on Sunday were the latest chapter in Suárez’s controversial career. Despite extraordinary talent that has seen him play at world-renowned clubs like Ajax, Barcelona, and Liverpool while being one of Uruguay’s all-time best players, he is largely known for the less savory side of his play.

Most notably, Suárez has been punished for biting opponents three different times. At Ajax, he was given a seven-game suspension in the Dutch top flight for biting Otman Bakkal. In 2013, he received a 10-game ban in the Premier League for a similar offense against Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanović. During the 2014 World Cup, he bit Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini, with FIFA suspending him from all activity in the sport for four months.