Evra Must Find Witness To Back Him Over Suárez Racism Claim

Luis Suárez increasingly looks like he will not face any charges from the Football Association unless Patrice Evra can produce witness statements to support his allegation that he was racially abused during Manchester United's 1-1 draw at Liverpool last weekend.

The FA is planning to send a delegate to Manchester to interview Evra, now that he is back in the country following the Champions League tie against Otelul Galati.

However, the case may rest on whether any of Evra's team-mates can corroborate his accusation that Suárez repeatedly racially abused him. The Uruguayan has vehemently denied the allegation, with the support of his club, and the FA needs to determine whether it is simply one man's word against another's. If that is the case, there may be nowhere further for the investigation to go.

The FA can also study television pictures but it would be highly unusual if it were to bring in lip-readers, and the inquiry will instead focus initially on what precisely the Senegal-born Frenchman claims was said, and whether his allegations can be backed up.

Evra had claimed on French TV that it happened "at least 10 times", but his case is undermined by the fact he did not bring the allegation to the attention of the referee, Andre Marriner, during the match.

The first Marriner knew of it was afterwards when Evra, accompanied by Sir Alex Ferguson, went to the referee's room to ask him to include it in his match report. Marriner then told the Liverpool manager, Kenny Dalglish, who spoke to Suárez and established that the Uruguayan denied the allegation.

Liverpool's belief is that if the case cannot be proved the FA should consider taking action against Evra on the grounds that it was a malicious allegation. This is unlikely to happen, however, unless there is categorical evidence that Suárez did not do what Evra claims.

A more likely outcome is that the case will be dropped if there are no other United players to support Evra's story. If that is the case, the FA may not even interview Suárez, having already been made aware from the Liverpool end that the allegation is denied. The FA is particularly sensitive to the rivalry between the clubs and eager not to be seen to be making any rash judgments.

However, anti-racism campaign groups such as Kick It Out believe Evra should have approached the referee during the game. Kick It Out launched its three-week 'One Game, One Community' action program last weekend, and the row between Evra and Suárez came on the same day that both players wore T-shirts to promote the campaign.