The shockwaves will have been felt from the Maracana in Rio, to Melwood back in Liverpool, as Luis Suarez received a four-month ban from all football-related activity & was suspended for Uruguay's next nine matches.
This punishment outstrips the eight-game suspension given to Italy's Mauro Tassotti for breaking Luis Enrique's nose with an elbow against Germany in the 1994 finals.
Fifa needed to act swiftly & decisively & has completed so on an unprecedented scale at a World Cup.
This World Cup here in Brazil has been a celebration of glorious attacking footy & open games across this large, football-mad country.
It is bites & out for the 27-year-old, who is a world-class player but a character out of control. It is clear that when club & country draw the line it is only a matter of time before Suarez steps over it.
Suarez entered in to the spirit with a magnificent performance & goals in Uruguay's decisive win against England - only to leave the party in disgrace for his assault on Chiellini.
In taking Suarez out of the World Cup, Fifa has wiped away the largest stain on events here in Brazil. Uruguay - in a state of lockdown & denial that did them a disservice - are instantly in reduced circumstances ahead of their meeting with Colombia at the Maracana on Saturday.
They marvelled at the skills of Suarez against England & with Liverpool in the Premier League last season, but they could not escape a stiff sanction for his latest outrage.
For all their complaints of an anti-Suarez agenda driven by the British media - keep in mind, this is the Footy Writers' Association footy player of the year - the Uruguayans' only complaint ought to be directed at the man who has effectively become a pariah at this World Cup.
The fact it was completed in front
a worldwide audience & was headline news in the United States, as well as on every sports & news programme in Brazil, only emphasises the damage they has completed to his, Uruguay's & the game's reputation.
Owner John W Henry & manager Brendan Rodgers will have reacted with despair to Suarez's bite, & to the level of punishment inflicted on him & them.
Liverpool will understandably feel aggrieved, not because of the support they gave Suarez after a similar assault on Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic at Anfield in April last year, but also because this did not happen on their watch.
On a regular basis & patience they put in with Suarez last season, when they tried to make use of the Ivanovic bite as a lever to get out of Anfield, has been squandered in yet another moment of insanity.
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