Malaysian Politician Defends Deal with Luis Suarez After Disciplinary Concerns

Malaysia's tourism minister has defended the decision to sign a one-year partnership deal with Barcelona striker Luis Suarez amid concerns over his disciplinary record.

According to Agence France-Presse (h/t Sport), Hee Loy Sian, an MP for Malaysia's opposition party, asked on Thursday why Suarez had been selected for the promotional campaign.

"We have a lot of better candidates," Hee said. The People's Justice Party representative clarified he was open to using foreign players to promote tourism for Malaysia but believed Suarez was not the right choice given the player's history.

According to The Star's Loshana K Shagar, Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz responded:

"A couple of MPs in the [Malaysian House of Representatives] also have terrible behaviour, but they have their supporters outside as well, so let's not condemn someone just because of what happened in the past.

"What happened with Suarez was when he was on the field. Besides, if he was very bad, why would he have millions of fans on social media?"

Suarez announced the partnership on his Twitter feed in November:

The Uruguayan has 12.5 million followers on the platform and twice as many on Instagram.

Suarez has been punished for biting for three times in his career.

The 30-year-old served a seven-match ban for biting Otman Bakkal in 2010 whilst playing for Ajax, and a 10-game suspension for doing the same to Branislav Ivanovic while representing Liverpool in 2013.

Suarez was banned from all footballing activity for four months the following year after biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini at the 2014 World Cup, which meant he missed the start of his first season with Barcelona.

He also received an eight-match ban a year later after being found to have racially abused Patrice Evra during Liverpool's clash with Manchester United.