The lawyers of Uruguayan footballer Luis Suárez will appeal his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and "study all the possibilities" to try and reduce the ban imposed on the forward by FIFA for biting a rival, after the organisation turned down his appeal to the ban on Thursday.
"There is a road to go down and we think we can turn the situation around", the lawyer Alejandro Balbi, who also sits on the Executive Committee at the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF), told his country's media on Thursday.
Balbi was "surprised" at the decision to uphold the ban and said that the best road to go down now was to try and reduce it with the CAS based in Switzerland, which he described as an "independent body".
Uruguay will immediately ask the reasons why the FIFA disciplinary committee upheld the ban and have 21 days to organise the appeal with the CAS. "There are precedents" of successful appeals according to Balbi, who assured that the Catalonia based law firm that forms part of Suárez's defence team are "very hopeful" of reducing his ban.
The Uruguayan lawyer has spoken to Suárez and described him as calm. "Although he was not happy because he was expecting a reduction in the ban", he made it clear.
With regards to any problem concerning the player's signing for Barcelona, Balbi answered that all questions should be directed to his agent Pere Guardiola."We only take care of Luis Suárez, the human being, along with the AUF", he said.
Read more: "Suárez is not happy; he was expecting a reduced ban" - MARCA.com (English version)