Luis Suarez: Maintaining Innocence Is Liverpool Star's Only Option

When the FA handed down an eight-match ban to Liverpool star Luis Suarez, we knew it wasn't the end of the situation.

The 24-year-old Uruguayan international and Barclays Premier League star is too valuable to his club and too popular a player for it to simply end with the FA's ruling.

Suarez has maintained his innocence throughout the process of investigation and punishment.

According to his lawyer, he'll keep doing it, too. Mirror Football's David Maddock quotes said lawyer saying:

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"Luis strongly denies the racist acts levelled against him. He has met his punishment with a great deal of pain but also with a lot of dignity and with the support of his family and friends ... He will protest his innocence right to the end. He wants to restore his tarnished image, at least at the heart of English football ... He is deeply upset but he has told us that he's going to redouble his efforts to continue to play the best way possible not only for his English club but also for the Uruguay national team."

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At this stage of the situation, there is nothing else Suarez can do. That doesn't mean what actions he can take, he's likely to appeal the ruling, but it means that maintaining innocence is all he has left.

His name will forever be linked with racism if he does not.

He naturally doesn't want that. Nobody would.

Suarez is only 24 years old and has yet to even complete one full year of Premiership football. He isn't leaving England any time soon. Attempting to clear his name is the only thing he can do.

Whether he made the remarks or not is not the issue anymore for Suarez himself. If he did, he'll answer for it and have to deal with the consequences. But if he didn't, as he claims, he doesn't deserve to classified as such.

There is no condoning racism on any level and I'm certainly not sticking up for Suarez in any way, shape or form. But for him, personally, the only option he has is to try and clear his name.