Luis Suarez will start training with his new
Barcelona teammates on Friday after getting the
green light from the Court of Arbitration for Sport,
the Spanish giants confirmed.
A statement released by the Catalan club read:
"Following the announcement of the verdict by the
Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) regarding the
appeal against the sanction imposed on Luis
Suarez by Fifa, FC Barcelona hereby announces
that the player will join the first team's training
session scheduled for Friday at 9.30 AM CET (0730
GMT) in the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper.
"Likewise, the public presentation of Suarez as a
new FC Barcelona player will be held on Monday at
the Camp Nou, on occasion of the Joan Gamper
Trophy match."
The CAS upheld Suarez's four-month ban from
playing in competitive games as well as his nine-
match international suspension, but it did allow
him to train and play in unofficial matches.
And that means he could make his debut against
Mexican club Leon in the Gamper Trophy, the
traditional curtain-raiser to the season at the Camp
Nou.
There will be a temptation to give the 27-year-old
a run-out against Leon as it will be Barcelona's
final friendly before their first league game of the
new season against Elche next weekend.
Suarez has reportedly been training on his own in
an unknown location in Catalonia since completing
his 95 million euros (£75 million, $127 million)
move to the Camp Nou from Liverpool last month.
He will be available to play in competitive matches
from Saturday, October 25, meaning his official
debut could come in the first Clasico of the
campaign against Real Madrid at the Santiago
Bernabeu, which has been scheduled for that
weekend.
Suarez was banned for biting Italy's Giorgio
Chiellini at the World Cup but despite the player
being allowed to resume training, Uruguayan
football officials are still "frustrated" with the
handling of the controversy.
Uruguayan Football Federation lawyer Daniel Cravo
told Sky Sports News: "We are really frustrated –
we understand that the behaviour of Luis Suarez in
that match deserved to be punished but we don't
think that it was the worst behaviour of a player in
a World Cup.
"There have been worse situations and the players
were not sanctioned at this level but of course we
respect CAS' decision.
"We have to wait for the reasons and we are sorry
for not having achieved what our client wanted
from us. I don't want to criticise the decision
because I don't know the grounds, that's
something we are interested in checking."
Suarez has never explained his propensity to bite
opponents.
He earned a 10-game ban for biting Chelsea's
Branislav Ivanovic in 2013, after being sidelined for
seven matches with Dutch club Ajax in 2010 for
the same offence against PSV Eindhoven's Otman
Bakkal.
On Wednesday, English Premier League boss
Richard Scudamore said that while Suarez was a
great footballer, he was also "an accident waiting
to happen".



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