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Suarez lawyer confident over bite appeal

Luis Suarez's lawyer is confident that the Barcelona striker will have his four-month ban reduced by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) when his appeal is heard on Friday.

Suarez's bid to have his suspension from "all football-related activity" reduced by FIFA takes him to the court based in Lausanne, Switzerland on August 8 after his case was fast-tracked.

The 27 year old is banned for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini while representing Uruguay at the World Cup, although that did not preclude him from completing his £75 million move from Liverpool to Barcelona last month.

Luis Suarez received a four-month ban for biting Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup © Getty Images

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An appeal to world football's governing body was rejected last month.

According to widespread reports a decision is expected next week. That means Suarez could be training with his new team-mates within the next two weeks and be available for their first match of the season in La Liga at home to Elche on August 24.

The Uruguayan Football Federation has instructed Brazilian lawyer Daniel Cravo to lead the appeal against the suspension, which also precludes Suarez from nine international matches. One game of that ban - the last-16 defeat to Colombia - has already been served.

Cravo told Radio Globo in his homeland that he believes he has a strong case to have the ban reduced. "I think FIFA wanted to show they could take action," he said.

"There was dissatisfaction with how other incidents had been treated at the World Cup and Suarez paid for them. Not even the sanction of [Zinedine] Zidane in 2006 or those of Leonardo and [Mauro] Tassotti in 1994 were as severe.

"Is the Suarez incident the worst in the history of the World Cup? I believe that the sanction which affects his work at a club level will be revoked. There is no precedent in history to justify it.

"I am going to try and reduce his ban with Uruguay - nine games is too much and would stop him from playing until 2016.

"[CAS] is totally different and on various occasions in the past they have taken completely different decisions to those which have been taken by FIFA."

Should Suarez serve out his entire four-month ban, his first match back could be the Clasico against Real Madrid, now scheduled for the weekend of October 25-26.

However, that will be determined by when Spanish broadcasters choose to have the game scheduled that weekend. Suarez's ban ends on October 26, a Sunday.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd