体坛英语新闻：Uruguay's President calls for support to Suarez

MONTEVIDEO, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Uruguay's President Jose Mujica on Thursday expressed his solidarity with the country's world famous soccer player Luis Suarez, who has got himself involved in a spat on accusations of racism against French player Patrice Evra.

Mujica called on all Uruguayans to stand by Suarez and support him, while he also denied that the star player on Uruguay's national team was a racist.

"It is necessary to ratify the affection this small country has for Suarez and to show our solidarity with him," Mujica said in a radio broadcast, adding that "we all clearly know that he is not racist and that he never has been."

The spat started after Suarez, who currently plays as a forwarder for the England's club Liverpool, avoided to shake hands with Evra ahead of a match last Saturday between Liverpool and Evra's club Manchester United, a match which Manchester United went on to win 2-1.

This is not the first time tension has arisen between the two players, as Suarez last year was suspended for eight matches after Evra denounced Suarez for taunting him with racist insults.

Mujica said the whole affair had been "exaggerated" by the local sports press in Britain and that Suarez immediately after the match had appologized to Evra and his club for the incident.

"His mistakes will help him learn what are the good manners in social relations," said Mujica, who also said part of such problems emerge because players like Suareaz are not trained to be "a formal diplomat."

Suarez, 25, was elected to be the best player in the South American Football Confederation's 2011 Copa America tournament which Uruguay won in July last year.