Barcelona president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, has denied that new signing Luis Suarez’s contract includes a ‘no biting’ clause.
Speaking with CNN World Sport’s Amanda Davies, Bartomeu explained that the club did not think twice before signing the controversial striker from Liverpool this summer.
It had been reported that Suarez’s deal included a ‘no biting’ clause that would impact him financially, rumours which Bartomeu flatly denied.
“No, there is no clause," he confirmed to CNN. "If the clause did exist we wouldn't say it, but it doesn't exist."
Suarez’s move followed a third incident involving the Uruguayan biting an opponent and resulted in the 27-year-old being handed a four-month ban by FIFA, which will delay his debut for the Catalan club and has denied Bartomeu the opportunity to unveil his latest signing.
“The only thing I know is that when we approached Suárez, it was before the World Cup,” said Bartomeu. “We told him that he had the right age right now. He had the experience. And we know that he had better offers than our offer but he came to Barcelona.
“We didn’t re-think about this decision and we told him, to Luis, after the bite. We told him and for us it was very good because he did something Luis that he accepted that he did wrong. He knows he did wrong the things. He apologised and that’s very important for us.
Bartomeu also said that Barca were working with Suarez’s former employers, Liverpool, in order to help maintain the psychological health of the player.
“We have a very good relationship with Liverpool club and we know what Liverpool did. We talked with our technical people and, well, from these conversations, from this good relationship we have with Liverpool, of course we are going to act,” said the Barca president, who admitted that the club were hopeful that Suarez wouldn’t bite a fellow professional again.
“We are very confident. He has to know, to see that a club is giving an opportunity to him and that’s very important for us,” he said.
