Final 16 set for UEFA Champions League

After the dust settled from Wednesday's shocking UEFA Champions League group results, the final 16 teams have emerged to make it to the knockout stage.

The draw is set for Dec. 16, and teams from the same group or same league cannot meet in the first knockout round. The teams in each pot are:

GROUP WINNERS - Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Benfica, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Arsenal, APOEL Nicosia, Barcelona

RUNNERS-UP - Napoli, CSKA Moscow, FC Basel, Lyon, Bayer Leverkusen, Marseille, Zenit-St. Petersburg, AC Milan

The eight teams that finished third in their groups and will drop down to the Europa League are: Manchester United, Manchester City, Ajax, Porto, Valencia, Olympiakos, Trabzonspor and Viktoria Plzen. 

What Round of 16 matchups are you hoping for? Will you pay more attention to the Europa League considering who is involved in it now?

Share your thoughts below.

Wayne Rooney at risk of a barren 2012 after Manchester United's exit

If the striker loses his appeal against a three-game Euro 2012 ban, he could face a year without elite European competition

A disconsolate Wayne Rooney walks off the pitch at Basel after Manchester United's Champions League exit. Photograph: Christian Hartmann/Reuters

Reputations are built on the highest stage and it should therefore be a fearful Wayne Rooney, below, who steps into Uefa's headquarters in Nyon on Thursday morning. The Champions League embarrassingly slipped from Manchester United's once assured grasp in Basel and the full three-match suspension from the European Championship may now follow for their England talisman. The continent is a potentially barren landscape for Rooney in 2012 and the torment is entirely self-inflicted.

The United striker's performance mirrored that of Sir Alex Ferguson's team in Switzerland, with plenty of endeavour but little end product, and the ignominy of a first entry into the Europa League awaits both. For a player of Rooney's ability yet miserable record in major international tournaments, confirmation that he must miss the entire group phase in Ukraine and Poland, if that is the verdict of Uefa's disciplinary panel on the banks of Lake Geneva, will be another devastating setback to his hopes of being recognised beyond English shores among the finest talents of his generation. As with United's exit from what appeared a straightforward group, it all seems unnecessary.

Ferguson may not care less about England's prospects at Euro 2012 – and privately the thought of Rooney having an enforced holiday must appeal at club level – but he must be aggrieved at the shadow one loss of self-control on international duty has cast upon United and a season of diminishing returns. The irony of the FA challenging a three-match ban for violent conduct from a player it suspended for two matches for swearing at a television camera last season, excluding him from the FA Cup semi-final defeat by Manchester City at Wembley, will not have been lost on the United manager either.

One red card against Montenegro did not expel United from the Champions League but it has marked a downturn in Rooney's season and poor finishing lay at the heart of their exit. There was greater responsibility on the forward regardless of the disciplinary appeal in Nyon, with Javier Hernández, Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Owen injured plus Danny Welbeck feeling his way back from the hamstring strain suffered with England. Rooney showed no signs of being distracted here, only annoyance at his own occasional poor touch, the referee and the substitute Federico Macheda, but he lacked the composure and finishing of the player Ferguson had labelled Britain's answer to Pelé when the campaign opened in Benfica. Then he had arrived in Lisbon with 11 goals from eight matches. He is currently on three from 12 appearances and the failure to improve that ratio against Basel proved humiliating and costly.

Ferguson had expressed such supreme confidence in Rooney's ability to leave his Euro crisis outside St Jakob-Park and United's impressive away form in Europe to predict that Ashley Young's stoppage-time equaliser against Basel at Old Trafford would be the goal "that rescued us in this section". But this, it soon transpired, was not the performance the United manager could have imagined from a side bidding for a fourth Champions League final appearance in five seasons.

From David de Gea's costly decision to use his feet in an attempt to cut out Xherdan Shaqiri's cross from the left, which only set up Marco Streller for a ninth-minute opener, to the failure of Bjorn Kuipers, the referee, to punish Granit Xhaka for three bookable offences in the first half – the influential midfielder committed a two-footed challenge on Park Ji-sung, deliberately tripped Rooney on a United break and scooped the ball away with his hand from Nani before finally receiving a yellow card for a foul on the Portugal international – the small details were costing United even before Streller accidentally became entangled with Nemanja Vidic's knee and ended the Serb's night after 42 minutes.

Rooney was central to frustration but continued to search for an escape until the final whistle. The United lineup suited their leading man, who was alone in attack but well supported by Park, less so by Young, and received sufficient supply from Nani and Ryan Giggs to have eased the Premier League champions' passage into the knock-out phase.

The England international should have equalised on the half-hour when Nani's cross found him lurking unmarked at Yann Sommer's far post. Rooney appeared perfectly placed, the ball at an inviting pace and height, but a slight deflection off a Basel defender was sufficient to throw the striker off balance and he miscued badly before Park missed a routine follow-up. Another excellent opening fell Rooney's way from Giggs's disguised pass into the Basel area. Again the connection was not as true as a player of Rooney's calibre should produce and Sommer made a comfortable save. A third attempt, curled inches wide from a difficult angle following another astute pass from Giggs in the second half, typified United's night. They have a long and agonising period to stew over the repercussions.

Jury is out on Roberto Mancini's ability to succeed at the very top

The Italian has failed to make it out of the Champions League group stages in five attempts

Manchester City's manager Roberto Mancini paid a heavy price for a series of strange decisions in the Champions League. Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images

Trauma for one half of Manchester, mere disappointment for the other. But while Manchester City faced up to the half-expected reality that not even an emphatic win over the winners of Group A was enough to secure their Champions League survival, those with a longer perspective in mind wondered whether Roberto Mancini will turn out to be the man to lead them to glory in the tournament.

The fine goals from David Silva and Yaya Touré that put City 2-0 up against the current leaders of the Bundesliga inside the opening hour were entirely consistent with their more attacking football in a remarkably prolific opening to the season. But the danger was always that the effort would come too late, and a glum silence descended over the ground as the news of Napoli's goals came through, broken only by the full-throated chants of the Bavarian fans.

The 47-year-old Italian knows what it is like to reach the final of the continent's premier club competition. In 1992 he was alongside Gianluca Vialli in the Sampdoria team that lost 1-0 to Johan Cruyff's Barcelona at Wembley, and might well have won had his fellow striker – another future Premier League manager – made the most of a couple of excellent chances.

Since turning to coaching and management, however, Mancini's record in the competition has been one of steadily declining achievement. He brought Internazionale their first Serie A title in almost two decades, going on to make it a personal hat-trick in the next two seasons, but his success would not be reflected in the competition that Massimo Moratti, anxious to repeat his father's triumphs as president with Helenio Herrera as head coach, really wanted him to win.

In 2004-05, at his first attempt in the Champions League with Inter, the squad's considerable resources were enough to take him to the quarter-finals, where they were humiliated in both legs by their fellow tenants of San Siro, Carlo Ancelotti's Milan.

A year later they reached the same stage, only to go out to Villarreal on away goals. Then things got worse. In 2006-07 Inter were again eliminated on away goals in Catalunya, this time by Valencia in the round of 16. And in Mancini's final season they were once more unable to go beyond the first knockout stage, losing at home and away to Liverpool without managing to notch up a single goal. The lack of evidence that the side were making progress in European competition under Mancini – indeed, the evidence to the contrary – persuaded Moratti to dismiss the man who had brought him seven trophies.

No doubt, given Mancini's highly professional approach to the job, his two years out of the game and three out of Europe were filled with contemplation of the methods by which he might persuade a group of gifted and richly rewarded players to fulfil the hopes of an ambitious owner at the highest level. And no doubt City's new regime were hoping that he would take the team all the way to the final in Bayern's Allianz Arena at the first time of asking next May.

Were he merely to win City's first English league championship in 43 years, they would be unlikely to take the Moratti option. But the fact remains that in Mancini's fifth Champions League season as a manager of a club at the very top level of financial support, with a vastly expensive array of talent at his disposal, he has failed even to make it out of the group stage.

There have been occasions during this campaign – in the two games against Napoli, from which they salvaged only a single point, and the 2-0 defeat in Munich – when Mancini appeared to have learnt little from his experiences. Facing Bayern on their home turf, for example, he paid a heavy price for a series of frankly bizarre decisions, picking a pair of attacking full backs – Micah Richards and Gaël Clichy – and left Nigel De Jong, his most efficient midfield shield, on the bench, dropping Joleon Lescott while inviting Kolo Touré to make a first start since his return from suspension. This was the night Carlos Tevez apparently refused to take the field as a substitute, when many believed he should have started a game City wanted to win.

In the return match last night, against a Bayern side stripped of three of their best players by injury and illness and with half a dozen others allowed to sit it out on the bench, City were given the opportunity to improve their European record, and took advantage of Jupp Heynckes' selectorial decisions. Silva's incisive shot and Yaya Touré's strike at the end of a lovely move involving Sergio Agüero and Edin Dzeko warmed the home fans on a chilly night.

"It takes a team years of development to succeed at this level," Heynckes observed afterwards. "City have had a lot of new players coming into the club. I think Mancini is slowly getting it together. But it will take experience and time."

City's fans have known much, much worse than elimination from the Champions League, and success in turning their present lead in the domestic championship in victory in the spring would dispel even the tiniest cloud from the East Manchester sky. In Europe, however, their manager can consider himself still very much on trial.

Manchester United miss Wayne Rooney – in attack, midfield and defence

The England player was unfit and without their linchpin the home side looked deficient in key areas against Benfica

Sir Alex Ferguson said he was very disappointed with the two goals Manchester United conceded against Benfica - 'it was almost freakish to lose two goals through an own goal and a bad kick-out'. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

One does not necessarily expect open and entertaining football in Champions League games when group qualification is at stake, even when sides of the pedigree of Manchester United and Benfica are involved. This was a pleasant surprise, indeed it was a night of surprises, with Dimitar Berbatov scoring his first Champions League goal in three years and being trumped by Pablo Aimar's first in seven, the one that not only ensured Portuguese qualification but gave Benfica every chance of topping Group C.

Doubtless the majority of Old Trafford fans took a more severe view, for while gaining the point necessary to go through in their final game in Switzerland ought not to be beyond the capabilities of a team of United's experience, it should never have come to this.

United held a 3-1 lead over Basel in the home fixture but could not hold on to it, and after exciting their home crowd here with the usual comeback after conceding a goal in the fourth minute, Sir Alex Ferguson's players rather spoiled the effect by conceding another one within seconds of taking the lead.

The old United never used to do that, and while pre-match conversations here centred on how much the home side would miss Wayne Rooney in attack, by the end of the game it was easier to understand why Ferguson has lately been deploying him in front of his defence.

With Nemanja Vidic suspended, Rooney's experience missing and Phil Jones unfortunate enough to put through his own goal in a rare outing at centre-half, United were far from solid as a defensive unit. True, Benfica cut them open only twice, but twice was enough. As far as Ferguson was concerned, twice was too many.

"I'm very disappointed with the goals we conceded, it was almost freakish to lose two goals through an own goal and a bad kick-out," the United manager said. "We didn't give ourselves enough time in the lead. Conceding so early took the wind out of our sails but we came back from that. It can be a cruel game at times."

Ferguson was not prepared to be cruel enough to blame Jones for both goals, although it was the young defender's back pass that slightly hurried his own goalkeeper. Putting the ball into his own net so early on could not have done much for Jones' confidence, though to his credit he recovered his poise sufficiently well to join in with a few attacks.

The United manager dismissed the early setback as unfortunate and unexpected, but if nerves possibly got the better of the former Blackburn player in his attempt to cut out Nicolás Gaitán's cross the real worry for United was the way two far more experienced players – Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick – were bypassed in midfield as Maxi Pereira surged smoothly forward to set up the chance.

It was tempting to wonder whether Rooney would have done any better, now he has become so adept at shielding his back four.

One suspected that had Rooney been available at that precise moment he would have been pressed into service in attack, not midfield or defence. As it was Berbatov and Ashley Young began to combine rather well, for such an unfamiliar combination, both making chances for each other.

It was Nani who crossed for the Bulgarian's equaliser, and within seconds Berbatov played Young clean through for a chance from which the England player might have done better than strike Artur's legs. Young then had to watch agonised as Benfica went straight down to the other end of the pitch to force a save from David de Gea.

It was, as Ferguson had predicted, both an open game and a tribute to the attacking traditions of both clubs. Whether the United manager actually meant it to be like that is another matter.

What he would never have been expecting, after Fletcher's goal put his side in front, was Benfica being presented with a route back immediately then Berbatov volleying over the bar from Fábio da Silva's inviting cross with the script demanding a late winner.

Manchester City's talent show keeps the goal factory in business

Opponents of the league leaders now face a wide, curling wave of talent, as well as game-changing players on the bench

Manchester City's Edin Dzeko (left) and QPR's Anton Ferdinand compete for the ball during the game at Loftus Road. Photograph: Jed Leicester/Action Images

Question to David Platt, Manchester City's assistant manager: "Have you seen a more prolific forward line?" Answer: "Only when I watch Barcelona on TV."

City are a rocket burst of goals: 39 in 11 league fixtures now, with only 10 conceded. In a blistering two-week run in all competitions they have beaten Manchester United 6-1, Wolves 5-2 and 3-1, Villarreal 3-0 (away) and now Queens Park Rangers 3-2 four days after a Champions League trip to Spain. Yet this victory passes into the club's favourite scrapbook not for the goals but the tenacity displayed against a defiant QPR team who will win plenty of matches performing with this kind of joie de vivre.

"The important thing is that when we're not quite at it, passing-wise, and not cutting through teams, we can still win football matches," Platt said.

QPR's defenders will be astonished to hear that this was City "digging out" a win (Platt's phrase). Edin Dzeko tortured them with his centre-forward play, after a slow start, and David Silva's creativity was again a delight.

QPR's problem was: how do you stop a goal factory locating a branch on your turf? The extra incentive for Roberto Mancini's team had been wins earlier in the day for Manchester United, Newcastle and Chelsea. But the Hoops had an answer. For much of the first half they raced across Loftus Park like ice-skaters, joining attacks with relish and closing City's big names down. Only with Yaya Touré's 73rd-minute header did they finally submit in a scintillating match that had QPR fans recalling their glory days.

Neil Warnock said he had been working on a plan to stop the money monster and it nearly worked. The idea was that his guests might not fancy a test of passion in one of London's most atmospheric grounds. Hyperactivity will not always work against a side of City's calibre because they have so many players who can caress the ball, slow the pace and slip a pass at an unplayable angle.

QPR, though, only needed it to work once. "Are you Chelsea in disguise?" their fans sang, in honour of the recent victory over their neighbours. Chelsea's captain took a slap as well: "John Terry – we know what you said," they chanted, in support of their own Anton Ferdinand.

The oceanic gap between Heidar Helguson, the QPR striker, say, and Sergio Agüero at the other end is bound to tell across a whole season. Nor is there a David Silva at QPR's university training ground under the Heathrow flight path. But if you catch a top team in a fatigued state with the right tactics and the supporters play their part (as QPR's normally do), you can inflict a pained look even on the world's richest club.

Early energy and industry create chances. Those chances must be taken by the lesser side before the rich one wakes and responds. With City, opponents now face a wide, curling wave of talent, The manager of a bottom-half side should probably never let his team see the names of City's game-changers: in this case, Samir Nasri, Adam Johnson (who came on for Agüero) and Mario Balotelli, whose second-half dive would have embarrassed the amateur dramatics society of a small Somerset village (Balotelli was booked).

Dzeko, a leggy type whose touch often deserts him, always presents a problem to centre-backs with his persistence and strength. Agüero is a buzzy, elusive menace who can thrash a shot from anywhere with his short backlift. Silva is the artiste from the all-conquering Spanish school. As City fell behind, this gang went to work.

At the restart Agüero and Silva talked angles of attack, like two geometrists, and Ferdinand and Danny Gabbidon, QPR's two centre-halves hugged each other for comfort. But this QPR side quite fancies itself, and rightly so. The assimilation of new players has been quick. Most encouragingly, discards from bigger clubs (Joey Barton, Shaun Wright-Phillips) have arrived not as sulking big-shots but grafters ready to support a cause.

Two points clear of United at the kick-off (and only three ahead of Newcastle), City turned up the heat with a sweeping move that carried Dzeko down QPR's right flank from where he crossed for Silva. When the tapes of Silva's contribution to this campaign are cut City's second goal here ought to feature. Most strikers would have swiped at the ball first time, but Silva guided it to a position where Gabbidon, his nearest pursuer, might have been in another county.

The finish was a calm, graceful affirmation of Silva's mastery over time and space. QPR's equaliser was less pretty: a Bothroyd header that struck Helguson's crown and went in as he crouched on City's goalline. Then came Yaya Touré's deal-closer. Anything you can do, they can do better.

Sir Alex Ferguson will never really leave Manchester United behind

As the great Scot celebrates 25 years at Old Trafford, those who followed Matt Busby know how tricky the succession will be

The Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, does not like talking about retirement. Photograph: Dave Thompson/PA

It was not the best of starts. The first match, a quarter of a century ago, was a 2-0 defeat on a bumpy pitch at Oxford United. In the dressing room, Alex Ferguson was finding it hard to disguise his nerves.

"I can remember him naming the team," Peter Davenport says. "He went through the defence and midfield and said: 'Right, up front, Frank and Nigel. OK lads?' There was a pause, then Robbo said: 'Nigel? Who's Nigel?' Fergie points at me and goes: 'Him, Nigel Davenport.' He'd got me confused with the actor from Howards' Way."

What has happened over the following 25 years identifies Ferguson as a man of phenomenal staying power and consistency. Sir Matt Busby was 62 when he closed his reign at Manchester United. Brian Clough left the game at 58. At Liverpool, Bob Paisley lasted until 64. Bill Shankly was 60. Nobody has managed longer than Ferguson at the highest level. Or with greater competitive courage. Never has a manager been so relentless in his ambition and so deeply embedded in the business of winning football matches and forming history.

He turns 70 next month and the mind goes back to 2003, when Sir Bobby Robson reached that age. Ferguson sat behind his desk at United's training ground and blew out his cheeks in disbelief. He was asked whether he could see himself going on so long and his response was delivered like a slap. "No bloody chance."

It has been an epic run. The 25th anniversary arrives on Sunday, and still there is no sign of the system getting the better of him. Retirement, Ferguson once said, is for other people. As long as he has his health, he says, he will continue to work, and he cites the cancer diagnosis of his father, Alexander, within a week of retiring from the Fairfields shipyard in Govan. "There are too many examples of people who retire and are in their box soon after. Because you're taking away the very thing that makes you alive."

But there will come a time when Ferguson has to cut himself free. Retirement isn't something he can file away in a drawer and when it comes to the lessons of history, the Busby handover and the ordeals of the men who replaced him, the critical question is how Ferguson will make his retreat and whether the club can manage the loss without repeating the mistakes made before.

Wilf McGuinness inherited the team from Busby in 1969 and, by his own admission, was never fully accepted by the senior players. Probably because he was not Busby. Now 74, his affection for United still shines brightly but he, better than anybody, understands how difficult it can be to replace the man behind an empire.

"Did I feel I had the full respect of all the players all the time?" he says. "Sadly, the honest answer has to be 'not really'."

He lasted eight months before Busby reappointed himself as manager. Or "four seasons", as McGuinness prefers to describe it: "Summer, autumn, winter and spring – and summer was the most successful."

McGuinness recalls it as "a supremely harrowing period". A mutinous one, too. McGuinness dropped Bobby Charlton and Denis Law and tried to assert some authority. One player went to the Sunday Times with his grievances, complaining on condition of anonymity that Busby's replacement was so bad at his job he would waste £1m if he were given it to spend. The transfer record at the time was £165,000.

It may be that the manager second in line to Ferguson has the more desirable job. The first man in will have to possess unbreakable self-belief, if such a man exists. Every trophy, every memorable achievement, every European campaign will be set against his predecessor's record. Every defeat will be accompanied by sniping that he is not a patch on the last man.

"You're going to need someone very experienced," Ferguson says. "It's not going to be a job for a young manager."

David Gill, the United chief executive, will be in charge of the process, though he says Ferguson will be prominently involved. "It would be a collective body, not a big body, but we would get all the input to make sure we make the appropriate choice. There won't be meltdown. It will clearly be a sea change for the club and we have to be ready."

But United made similar noises in 2002, when Ferguson was supposed to retire, and the man they chose, Sven-Goran Eriksson, is now regarded at Old Trafford as a dodged bullet. Since Eriksson took the call to inform him Ferguson had changed his mind, he has closed out his time with England then hopped between jobs with Manchester City (11 months), Mexico (10 months), Notts County (seven months), Ivory Coast (three months) and Leicester City (12 months). Six jobs on three continents, five of them since 2006.

José Mourinho is the name at the top of every betting-shop board, ahead of Pep Guardiola and David Moyes third, but for now all that can be said with certainty is that whoever comes in will be spared some of the issues that faced Ferguson when he replaced Ron Atkinson in 1986.

Atkinson had let his team grow old, whereas Ferguson has unselfishly hoarded players who may not reach their potential until well after he is gone. His goalkeeper, David de Gea, could be at Old Trafford for a decade. Ditto a back four of Rafael da Silva, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Fábio da Silva. "These young players are the future of Manchester United," Ferguson says, and there is a stark contrast to be drawn with the club he found 25 years ago.

One of Ferguson's first instructions to United's board was to start clearing out the older players and replace them with younger versions. A friend asked Ferguson what he made of the youth policy Atkinson had left behind. "What youth policy?" he replied. "He's left me a shower of shit."

Frank O'Farrell also inherited an ageing team. He took over from Busby in 1971 and lasted 81 matches. He reflects on it being "a bit like following Lord Olivier on stage".

O'Farrell, like McGuinness, ran into problems with the older, more established players. "I once made Denis Law substitute and he didn't want to sit on the bench to watch the game," he says. "He wanted to stay in the dressing room."

In the words of McGuinness, Busby was "the perfect role model for any aspiring manager, but an extremely difficult act to follow. Matt had so much knowledge, but he was also an immensely mature character with that wonderful deep voice. He had a certain aura, a magnetic presence which exuded calmness and reassurance. In contrast, I was not particularly mature and my voice was not remarkable in any way, except for being loud."

O'Farrell has just put his memories into a book that will make hard reading for anyone who considers Busby to be flawless of character. All Change at Old Trafford depicts Busby as a man who could not let go.

"When I arrived, Matt was still in the manager's office and there were workmen constructing a new small office for the new manager – me – down the corridor," O'Farrell, who is now 84, says. "The alarm bells started ringing. Matt was not manager any more, but he was still going to keep the office."

Busby had taken on the role of "junior director" but, according to O'Farrell, he interfered with team matters to the point where he became "a hindrance". Busby had "a streak of vindictiveness" and at one point berated O'Farrell for leaving out the 34-year-old Charlton and criticised him for playing Martin Buchan, one of the new manager's signings.

"A lot of the senior players had a close relationship with Matt, even playing golf with him, and they'd take their gripes to him," O'Farrell says. "I suspect he would be saying he would have done things differently. Matt questioned my decisions and created discontent. He wasn't the manager, but he couldn't let go."

The point is relevant because Ferguson has said that after he steps down as manager, he will stay at Old Trafford in a new role. What that will be is not clear, but a boardroom position is possible. O'Farrell has said that would be a mistake. "What happened once could happen again. Sir Alex will find it almost impossible to remain a part of the club and resist still being a counsellor and guru to his old players."

This is not a subject the man himself is willing to debate at length. Ferguson does not like to talk about retirement, and tends to greet questions on the subject with one of those stares that can make you feel as though you have sawdust in your mouth. When it is unavoidable, like this week, he will shift awkwardly in his seat, like a pools winner who has forgotten to tick the no-publicity box.

At his press conference this week the first question about his anniversary was met by his stock rebuttal: "I'm nae getting into that." Later, his position relaxed and, as he reminisced on the last quarter of a century, the 37 trophies and some of the lead performers – "Robson, Whiteside, McClair, Hughes, Ince, Keane – God – Cantona. What a collection" – before enthusing about the new generation, we were reminded of the fundamental reason why he does not want to contemplate a future without football.

Football is the thing that makes the most sense of his life. Twenty-five years at Manchester United? "It's a fairytale," Ferguson said.

And retirement? "All I can say is that I'm looking forward to the next 25 years."

In defence of Luis Suárez

The Liverpool striker has become a pariah in the Premier League thanks to little English football's strange kind of logic

Is the rest of the Premier League suffering from Suarez envy? Photograph: Michael Mayhew/Sportsphoto/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

Having showcased his Hand of God tribute act at the last World Cup, andsunk his gnashers into a fellow pro while at Ajax, Luis Suárez was a ready-formed cartoon villain when he washed up on these shores last January. All that was missing was the stovepipe hat, cape, cane and elaborate moustache. Nyahh nyahh nyahh. Yet even so, it's still something of a shock – a shameful, sorry shock – how quickly the Uruguayan has found himself to be the biggest pariah in English football.

Last weekend, in the early exchanges of Liverpool's visit to West Bromwich Albion, Jerome Thomas needlessly stuck out a leg to impede the progress of Suárez. Progress being used there in its loosest sense; Suárez was scampering nowhere fast, out of the area, away from danger. Knocked to his knees, skittering across the turf like a distressed toddler who had just fallen off his bike, the Liverpool striker didn't even claim for the penalty. But a foul is a foul, no matter how soft, and the spot kick was duly awarded. Suárez spent the rest of a brilliant display getting pelters from the Hawthorns faithful, and was loudly and signally booed off as he was substituted near the end.

All of which is fair enough. Fans are under no obligation to be even-handed; Thomas could have bowled into view behind the wheel of a 4x4, knocking Suárez 15 feet into the air off the bonnet, and some supporters would have still insisted Suárez deserved to be booked for jaywalking. But you expect a little bit of reason from the professionals and the media.

"I think the 25,000 people watching, even the Liverpool supporters, will probably agree with me that it looked like a very, very harsh decision, and there was certainly no intention to foul the player or give away a penalty," opined West Brom boss Roy Hodgson after the game. Top marks to Roy for chutzpah, in attempting to corral moral support from a fanbase he'd systematically alienated with a series of self-serving statements during his time at Anfield, but otherwise the comment missed the point spectacularly. Benign intent does not cancel out clumsiness. And seeing Hodgson was in the mood to make assumptions on behalf of others, Liverpool supporters will probably agree with me that his complaint smacked of bandwagon jumping, Suárez's sullied reputation a convenient out for his team's piss-poor display, one grabbed eagerly with both hands.

For some reason – surreal, yet paradoxically predictable – a controversy over this most basic and clear-cut decision ran for most of the week. "It was a nice dive for the penalty," suggested West Brom midfielder Paul Scharner a couple of days ago. "Suárez is very good at winning penalties. He's one of the best on the planet, in fact. There was a general feeling among all the players that it was a soft penalty." Soft it may have been, but a penalty it was nonetheless, and Scharner's accusation of diving was at best myopic and befuddled. More uncharitably, seeing Scharner is in the business of shooting from the hip without a second's thought for reputation, his claim was a flat-out lie. That such a statement has been left hanging, reported unchallenged in the press, his words reprinted in headline-point size, borders on the weird.

Many of football's controversies are initially fuelled by television, the papers turning up 24 hours later with a couple of cans of petrol and a box of Swan, tittering excitedly. But to be fair this time round, ESPN attempted to nip this strange business in the bud. The co-commentator Chris Waddle was quick to call Thomas's foul, as were his colleagues in the studio, though you do wonder whether Waddle was feeling some guilt for his dubious performance during Liverpool's game the previous week against Norwich City, when almost every compliment given to Suárez was prefaced with a totally needless: "I don't like the way he goes to ground sometimes, but..." It's a strange state of affairs when a player's contributions are constantly framed by their misdemeanours – Steven Gerrard's finer moments have rarely been counterbalanced with his habit of starfishing himself to the floor, while Wayne Rooney has yet to be admonished upon Mark Hughesing one home for any previous arse-kicking red mists that may have occasionally befallen him – but this is the way of life for Suárez.

At one point during that Norwich game, Suárez was blocked off on the edge of the area. It probably wasn't a foul, though you've seen them given. Play went on, Craig Bellamy within nanoseconds running the ball out of play down the left. At which point Suárez was loudly berated by the ESPN commentator Jon Champion for not springing immediately back up and joining in the move again. Denis Law, who could defy gravity like few others, would have struggled to raise as much as a wry eyebrow in a similarly allotted time. Nothing, sure enough, was said when Suárez stayed teetering on his toes a few minutes later, dragging a shot wide left of goal, despite having been nudged in the area and well within his rights to send the nipples turfward looking for the penalty. Michael Owen, England's penalty-winning hero against Argentina in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, would have had no compunction.

A few days later, in a Carling Cup game transmitted on the BBC, Suárez was standing in the penalty area at Stoke waiting for the dispatch of a corner, with his hands conspicuously in the air to demonstrate that he wasn't grappling with any defenders. "He's making sure the referee knows he's fouling no one," announced Guy Mowbray, before pausing and proudly quipping: "He's fooling no one." Lovely linguistic gymnastics, and what comedy, though hardly Reithian reporting; if Suárez displayed similar balance in the penalty area, he'd have an instant 10-match ban for simulation.

Thing is, nobody's fooling themselves, and it would be hard to paint Suárez as an angel. This latest slew of accusations have come in the wake of Jack Rodwell's disgraceful sending off in the Merseyside derby, for a tackle which saw the Everton youngster barely clipping Suárez. The Liverpool striker certainly made the most of Rodwell's challenge, and you can berate him for patrolling the outer boundaries of the game's laws – simulation is illegal, but exaggeration of a foul is only covered by the vague and highly subjective theory of gamesmanship – but then Rodwell was playing with fire having momentarily shown his studs as he thundered in for the tackle, surely the crucial factor in referee Martin Atkinson's mistake. Suárez had done nothing technically wrong; indeed, Atkinson had whipped the card out with Suárez having barely hit the turf, suggesting the player's reaction had little or nothing to do with what was unquestionably a dismal decision. Either way, it's not much evidence with which to condemn a man. And given pretty much everyone in the league is at it anyway, singling Suárez out for opprobrium does make one wonder.

There's a very large elephant in the room, of course, and it's parping the sort of elaborate freestyle jazz solo that makes Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity sound like the theme tune to Hancock's Half Hour: the allegations of racist abuse levelled at Suárez by the Manchester United captain Patrice Evra. Should Evra's claims be made to stand, Suárez will have some serious talking to do, and quickly. Sympathy for his plight would suddenly be in extremely short supply, both outside and inside Anfield. But at the time of writing, that's a mighty big if: he's currently an innocent man, and must be treated as such.

Evra's accusations do throw light on a certain irony, however, and lead us to what is the crux of the problem. English football is rightly proud of its efforts to kick out racism. The game has come a long way since the unreconstructed days of the 1970s and 1980s. Arguably even more of an achievement lies in the fact that nobody involved with the sport has since got complacent: the recent accusations involving Suárez and John Terry have been addressed swiftly and seriously, across the board by professionals, administrators, media and fans.

But while there's a healthy zero-tolerance attitude to the overt stuff, a strain of unspoken, casual xenophobia remains. English football puffs out its chest in pride at its modern cosmopolitan nature, but despite the international roll call there's still a bit of work to be done. In more than one quarter, Suárez has been advised to tone down the theatrics in order to get the crowds – and the media – off his back. Given that making the most of challenges, providing there's no drift into simulation, isn't against the laws of the game, and that such a grift is more widely accepted in other countries, there's an unsettling undertone here: you can work in the country, but you have to do things our way. Extend that argument into any other walk of life, and you're on very dodgy political ground. Exactly why football should be treated any differently isn't made clear.

The pious demands aren't, of course, directed at homegrown players partial to a wee dive: the aforementioned Gerrard or Owen, for example. When Arsenal's record-breaking 49-game unbeaten run was ended, it was thanks to a brilliantly disguised but shameful tumble by Wayne Rooney, as British a bulldog as you're likely to see. Francis Lee, also of these shores, practically invented the concept of going to ground in the mid 1960s.

There's also a strange (and very British) kind of logic on display here: if we're so annoyed by the over-reaction of certain players to being fouled, all quadruple salchow and pike, then instead of heaping abuse on the poor saps rolling about, would it not be better to ask the other players to stop kicking them? The last time we ended up here, in the summer of 2006, one of the best players in the world was nearly hounded out of the country for winking, while the man who perambulated up and down a man's front tail was treated as the victim of the piece.

A desperately sad state of affairs, all told, and one which leaves poor old Suárez hanging out to dry. He is, sadly, unlikely to be cut much slack; you know how these things pan out. In many respects, while Liverpool's player is within his rights to bemoan his lot, the club's fans can't complain too loudly, as all this is nothing new. Allegiances being what they are, Kopites didn't man the barricades alongside their comrades at Chelsea when Didier Drogba was getting pelters for being regularly kicked around like an old sock. Nor did they fight the good fight side by side with those from Manchester United, when Cristiano Ronaldo was constantly berated for being repeatedly sent flying across Old Trafford on his shiny teeth.

Still, it would be nice to think this is where we all finally come together and draw a line under this nonsense, though the suspicion is that we haven't quite matured enough. We're getting the overt stuff down pat. The rest? Not so much. But let's not be too harsh on ourselves. Much of this, you have to hope, is less true xenophobia, and simply the projection of jealousy and frustration at watching truly brilliant players going about their business. If Liverpool's No7 wasn't any good, few people would care. Cristiano Ronaldo, let's remember, was vilified for doing stepovers.Stepovers. A skill. Thanks, Britain! Well done, us! Luis Suárez must wonder what he's let himself in for.