The Football Association may make an application to an independent regulatory commission to ban Liverpool striker Luis Suarez for as many as seven games more than double the three-game tariff for violent conduct, which the Uruguayan was charged with yesterday.
The governing body is clear to pursue the 26-year-old retrospectively after referee Kevin Friend disclosed, as expected, that he had not seen Suarez bite Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic at Anfield Monday (NZT) and they will make a separate application to the panel, convened tomorrow, seeking a severe penalty.
There is no precedent in the English game since rule changes, not applicable when Tottenham Hotspur's Jermain Defoe bit West Ham United's Javier Mascherano in October 2006, allowed them to punish retrospectively.
A five-game ban the statutory three-game ban plus an additional one-game or two-game surcharge is possible. The seven-game suspension handed out to Suarez in Holland in 2010 for biting Otman Bakkal of PSV is one benchmark and the punishment may be nearer to that figure, possibly eight games.
It is understood Ivanovic's skin was not broken when Suarez bit down at him, though the player did feel contact. Suarez tweeted that he had spoken to the Serbian on the telephone to apologise but it is understood Ivanovic remains disgruntled by the strikers conduct and does not feel that he can forgive and forget.