Luis Suarez
Luis Suarez holds his teeth during the 2014 World Cup Group D match between Uruguay and Italy at the Dunas arenaReuters

Uruguay striker Luis Suarez insisted he did not bite Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini during the final Group D fixture in Natal on 24 June.

The 27-year-old striker, who has returned to Uruguay, has been slapped with a nine match suspension from international football and a four-month ban from all football-related activities by FIFA after being found guilty of the incident.

However, the Liverpool striker, who was hit with a ten match ban by the FA after being found guilty of biting Chelsea's Branislav Ivonavic in the closing stages of the 2012/13 season, insisted he is innocent and the whole "bite incident" was just an accident.

"In no way it happened how you have described, as a bite or intent to bite. After the impact ... I lost my balance, making my body unstable and falling on top of my opponent. At that moment I hit my face against the player leaving a small bruise on my cheek and a strong pain in my teeth," explained Suarez, in a letter to the FIFA panel dated June 25.

Still FIFA's seven-man panel dismissed Suarez's pleas, saying the bite was "deliberate, intentional and without provocation."

"The commission took into account that the offence was made directly against a player while the ball was not in dispute and that the offence was deliberate and intentional and without provocation," read a statement by Fifa's disciplinary panel led by former Switzerland striker Claudio Sulser.

"He bit the player with the intention of wounding him or at least of destabilising him. In such context the committee observes that the player had been sanctioned on previous occasions in club competition for similar acts."

Meanwhile Uruguay manager Oscar Tabarez, who resigned from FIFA's Technical Study Group in protest, felet the disciplinary panel punishment was very harsh and they have made Suarez a "scapegoat"

"Many times you forget that the scapegoat is a person, who has rights, In this specific case of Luis Suarez, despite the faults he may have committed, he has made significant contributions to football from the pitch," Tabarez told reporters.

The Uruguayan FA, who also seem to agree with Tabarez thoughts, have officially lodged an appeal to overturn or reduce Suarez ban.

"We have received a declaration that they are planning to appeal. They informed us of their intention to appeal yesterday evening," said FIFA head of media Delia Fischer, who added that the Uruguayan FA have "a deadline of seven days" to give the "reasons for the appeal" on writing.