MONTEVIDEO, June 27- Uruguay striker Luis Suarez, banned from football for four months after biting an opponent at the World Cup, returned home to a hero’s welcome from hundreds of fans at Montevideo airport on Friday, reports said.
Suarez, 27, flew back to his home country on a private jet, local media reported. Hundreds of fans were at the airport carrying banners with slogans such as “Luis, All Of Uruguay Is With You.”
The private jet landed in Montevideo just before dawn. Hundreds of fans carrying banners with slogans such as “Luis, All Of Uruguay Is With You” were waiting.
“He has been treated worse than a murderer, when it was just a mistake,” one of the fans at the airport told AFP.
President Jose Mujica went to the airport intending to greet the star striker. He left again because Suarez’s flight was delayed. Mujica has strongly defended Suarez insisting that he had seen no bite during Tuesday’s Group D match which Uruguay won to reach the last 16.
Suarez was driven away to his mother’s home in the southern province of Canelones.
FIFA indicated it was worried about damage to football’s global image from the biting storm which has dominated front pages and sports pages around the world for three days.
