Social media analysis of more than 1.75 million social media conversations on Twitter and Facebook about Liverpool striker Luis Suarez found the majority of users unsurprisingly discussed his increasingly controversial conduct, but a substantial number were still primarily interested in his footballing abilities.
The research from Crimson Hexagon found 47 per cent of conversations discussed the striker's 10-match ban for biting Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic while seven per cent talked about Suarez being booed at the industry's PFA Awards. However, a substantial 46 per cent of tweets and Facebook posts concentrated on the star's footballing skills alone.
Wayne St. Amand, VP of marketing at Crimson Hexagon, commented: "We used our ForSight analysis platform to breakdown conversations around the Suarez incident and found that the bite itself generated an overwhelming amount of conversations and discussions.
"It was also interesting to see how those conversations changed over time to focus on his match ban and reaction to how he was recently received at the PFA Awards.
"While these are all interesting aspects to the overall social media conversation, the power of social media opinion analysis lies in the discovery of conversations you didn't necessarily expect, such as the large number of social media users who discussed Suarez's football skills, prowess and sport domination, regardless of his questionable behaviour."
Suarez - who received a seven-match ban in 2010 for biting PSV Eindhoven's Otman Bakkal as well as a £40,000 fine and eight-match ban for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra last season - took to Twitter to make apologies and said he would not appeal the ban.
I'm sad for what happened this afternoon, I apologize Ivanovic and all football world for my inexcusable behaviour. I'm so sorry about it!!
— Luis Suarez (@luis16suarez) April 21, 2013
Hello to everyone, I wanted to share this statement with all of you. Thanks for your support twitter.com/luis16suarez/s…
— Luis Suarez (@luis16suarez) April 26, 2013