Players do not measure their respect for one another as opponents based on their Immanuel Kant like commitment to willful adherence to the laws of the game… because they are football players and not a bunch of poindexters.

Mike, I have to disagree slightly about the deception of the referee. Let’s face it, referees are not historically reliable decision makers. The one time in Arjen Robben’s life he didn’t pretend to be killed by contact and did the “honorable thing,” Howard Webb didn’t give the penalty he deserved. In fact, when he didn’t go down, Sid Lowe remarked that he didn’t see a foul even on replay (watch Puyol’s hands).

Exaggeration, deception, bending of the rules, these aspects of the game are not how players measure honor. I don’t think Henry deserves abuse for his handball either. It is terrible that it was not called. But there are a million little bends in the law in every match.

The unspeakable subversion of the law for players is intentionally injuring someone or feigning a serious injury to get a player sent off – because both put the health of human beings at risk. The former as the means to injure, the latter as a complication in regulating truly injurious acts. That’s the difference between the decency and football. Football is a game. Murdering someone does not violate the arbitrary rules people made up for the purposes of amusement it is much more serious- that’s why murder has little in common with touching a ball with a human hand.

I’ll argue with neither the current handball rules or the punishment… only the hypocrisy of your Henry comparison and the issue of booing. Not that it matters but it’s a bit of a leap to presume to know what is in the hearts and minds of little more than dots of color on a television screen. I noted no coins, seats, vuvuzelas, etc being thrown from the stands at Uraguayan forward. That was a rare and dastardly bit of gamesmanship. Knowing a nation was out of the world cup as a result, gloating after the fact was ill-advised. He should expect the booing.

Suarez fully knew he was getting a red card. If he was trying to get away with it, he would have pulled the Arjen Robben style incensed arguing with the official tactic protesting his innocence. He had no complaints and walked down the tunnel after being shown the red.

The fact remains that there is no sport w/ relevantly similar style of play that awards a goal when a penalty is committed by a player illegally stopping one. The only other comparable situations are hockey (a Penalty Shot is awarded, same thing as football), and rugby (a penalty goal is awarded, and I believe they have a lower points value though don’t quote me on that). So why should football be any different as to hand a team the goal instead of just giving them the free opportunity?

Additionally, it wasn’t just booing from the Africans, there was true malice behind the crowd response. If you watched the 3rd-place match, you’d know the biggest cheers were on the most dangerous tackles against the man. So much for the fair play and respect that FIFA desires being shown by the fans.

The notion that professional fouls are simply “legalized cheating” is utter nonsense, even the least knowledgeable follower of the game would understand that with a simple explanation. It is called a professional foul because it is doing what is needed to be done for the good of the team, given that the goal of sport is to win. No one is trying to deceive a referee when they tug down a man who is through on goal (a professional foul to deny an obvious goal scoring opportunity), they are simply preventing a goal the only way they have left when they have been beaten by skill, knowing full well the consequence is a red card, but hoping that the team can see out the match without giving up a goal later. By extension you are claiming that any foul is cheating essentially as it breaks up play, thus making football a non-contact sport, which is absolutely not the truth.

It is up to the official to make the calls, NOT THE PLAYERS. Intentional, not intentional or reactionary, the players’ action/intent is what is in question here. If Henry is a cheat for keeping a ball inbounds then Suarez is most surely the worst kind of cheat for denying a winning goal with his decision to be an unlawful 2nd goalkeeper. His gloating only added insult to injury. The boos should’ve been expected, and it would’ve been the same at any WC with strong home support for the country that suffered as a result. I shudder to think what would have happened had it been England instead of Ghana.

HUGE gap in those facts, it’s almost literally night and day.

When you have the elite pundits,those closest to the match such as, the match commentators like Derek Rae and Martin Tyler and Ian Darke, noting that all game laws were upheld and all coming out saying it is wrong to label Suarez a cheat, there’s really no reason to disagree.

Ghana were justly awarded the PK, which was an equal if not better chance to score than the play itself, and the chance was missed.

The fact remains that we would not even discuss Suarez’s act and “cheating” in the same sentence if Gyan had converted, and deep down I think everyone knows that. Sooner, rather than later, Uruguay’s great achievements of this World Cup will be fully and duly recognized by the global football community.

P.s. We obviously have a different set of morals. As someone who played state level sport, I can tell you that intentionally breaking the rules is nothing about sacrifice, anyone can do it. Its about winning with integrity and thats something that Uruguay clearly haven’t learnt but based on their diving the entire tournament (and some of the other nations), there are a lot of teams where winning is more important than integrity and self respect.

Suarez did nothing unsporting in the least. Unsporting is kicking a man who is down, or booting the ball into Row Z in frustration, or having a profanity-laced spat at the official or another player.

Conversely, Luis Suarez sportingly allowed his teammates a chance to survive and advance, sacrificing his own appearance in any potential tournament progression in favor of the best interests of the country.

Gyan has failed his nation at the crucial moment, and Suarez has lifted his. There is no sportsmanship to be discussed other than that of the selfless act Suarez took to preserve hope for his teammates and his nation, which is good sportsmanship of the highest order in my book.

A professional foul is a really nice way of saying cheating, because that is all it is at the end of the day. Its the same as punching below the belt in boxing which today we call a professional foul, and previously resulted in disqualification under the banner of cheating Do we really want our kids growing up thinking its okay to forego sportsmanship for the end result? Soccer is one of the few sports this attitude is accepted. In cricket, if a player claims a catch he didn’t take and its shown to be so on TV, the player is vilified and seen as an embarrassment, but in soccer he’s raised as a hero. That should tell you something about the quality of the majority of soccer supporters. No wonder the world see’s soccer supporters as hooligans, their morals are so low they qualify for the title.

On the issue of Boateng, what he did is still legal. Many players switch countries, there are a number of reasons for doing so, but at the end of the day, its a choice they make and its LEGAL! Until they legalise playing the ball with your hand in the goal mouth, its still wrong and its still cheating. What Suarez did wasn’t legal and he was proud of it. If he’s so proud of it, he should be proud of the label “Cheat” and should be proud to be booed on the field.

Law is applied equally to everyone. The stench of sanctimonious airs is always applied unevenly. I’ll stick with the former and condemn the latter, thanks.

Suarez did his country no favours with his actions. He cost a side their place in the semi’s and he was proud of his cheating. He deserved to be booed and if I was there, I would have booed him at every opportunity.

To have the respect of the crowd you have to gain the respect of the crowd. He did not do that.