Luis Suarez suspended three MLS games for actions in Seattle brawl
Inter Miami forward Luis Suarez has been suspended for the next three MLS regular season games, in addition to the previously announced six-game 2026 Leagues Cup ban, as punishment for his behavior on the field immediately after the 2025 Leagues Cup final against the Seattle Sounders on Aug. 31.
Major League Soccer on Monday announced the disciplinary measures for Suarez, a Seattle Sounders staff member, and the Sounders organization.
Suarez, who was seen grabbing a Sounders player by the neck and later spitting on a Seattle security official, will serve the three-match suspension on Saturday (at Charlotte FC), Sept. 16 (vs. Seattle Sounders) and Sept. 20 (vs. D.C. United).
Sounders staff member Steven Lenhart, who joined the club this season as a mental health advisor, had his credential privileges revoked for the remainder of the 2025 MLS regular season and postseason.
Lenhart will only be permitted in public seating areas during Seattle Sounders home matches and cannot be on or near the field of play, nor in or around the locker rooms, or tunnel. His access will again be reviewed ahead of the 2026 MLS season.
The Sounders organization was fined an undisclosed amount for misappropriation of credentials.
Inter Miami midfielder Sergio Busquets and defender Tomas Aviles, who were handed bans and fines by the Leagues Cup disciplinary committee for “violent conduct” during the post-game brawl, were not sanctioned by MLS.
Aviles is suspended for the next three Leagues Cup games starting in 2026, and Busquets for two. Lenhart was suspended for five 2026 Leagues Cup matches.
All four individuals sanctioned by the Leagues Cup were also fined for their conduct. The amounts of those fines were not disclosed.
Suarez issued an apology last Thursday, expressing deep remorse.
“First of all, I want to congratulate the Seattle Sounders for their victory in the Leagues Cup; but, most of all, I want to apologize for my behavior at the end of the game,” Suarez’s statement began.
“It was a moment a great tension and frustration, right after the game ended, and things happened that should not have happened, but that does not justify my reaction. I made a mistake, and I sincerely regret it.
“That is not the image I want in front of my family, which suffers due to my errors, nor in front of my club, which also doesn’t deserve to see itself affected for something like this.
“I feel badly for what happened and I didn’t want to let the opportunity go by without acknowledging it and asking forgiveness from everyone who felt bad for what I did.
“We know that that there is still a lot of our season ahead and we will work together to succeed and reach the goals that this club and all its fans deserve.
“A hug to all.”
Suarez, the 38-year-old Uruguayan icon and one of the greatest strikers in history with more than 500 goals for club and country, has had his legacy stained by disciplinary issues.
He was banned on three occasions for biting opponents during matches.
The most famous biting incident occurred during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, when Suarez bit Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini on the shoulder. He was banned for four months from all soccer-related activities for Uruguay and FC Barcelona, including training, and had to miss nine international matches.
A year earlier, while a star with Liverpool in the English Premier League, he received a 10-game ban after biting the forearm of Chelsea fullback Branislav Ivanovic.
He was also banned for eight games in 2011 after being found guilty of a racist slur against Manchester United’s Patrice Evra, a charge he vehemently denied at the time and since.
In 2010, while playing for Ajax in the Netherlands, Suarez bit the shoulder of Eindhoven’s Otman Bakkal and was handed a seven-game ban by the Dutch football federation. He had avoided serious sanctions for more than 10 years until this week.
Inter Miami lost the Leagues Cup final 3-0 to the Sounders in front of a crowd of 70,000 at Lumen Field in Seattle, and tempers flared as the two teams left the field. They meet again in a regular season MLS game at Chase Stadium on Sept. 16.
This story was originally published September 8, 2025 at 2:31 PM.