Liverpool striker Luis Suarez has reopened the racism row by describing his eight-match ban as strange and insisting his "conscience is clear".
The Uruguay international was banned after an independent panel appointed by the Football Association found him guilty of racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra in a match at Anfield last October.
Suarez insisted throughout he had done nothing wrong and has never publicly apologised to the Frenchman.
And he still feels a sense of injustice now.
"The suspension, I suppose, you could call strange and unbelievable," the 25-year-old said in an interview with Russia Today.
"There was not a single convincing proof that I had done any of the things they accused me of doing.
"I accepted it without saying anything, obviously because they could have made [the suspension] longer and it would have just made the whole thing continue, but my conscience is completely calm, and so is that of the club and my family.
"Everyone knows that in Uruguay there is a huge black population.
"I had team-mates and friends of both colours all the time in the national team, in Liverpool, in Holland, where the majority are from Surinam, and I never had any problem with them.
"Holland is one of the countries in the world where there is the highest number of black players and at no point was there an issue."
Suarez suggests there was a conscious campaign to get him suspended, but although he remains unhappy with his treatment by the Football Association and the media, he did not specify whom he blamed for that.
"It seems to me they had to get rid of a Liverpool player and, well, they definitely were gratified by all of this," he added.
"What the English press has said about me does not interest me.
"What interests me is what they say about me in Uruguay and in Liverpool, and they have always been very supportive.
"After the suspension I was told the fans would taunt me, they would whistle me, insult me and shout at me, but to be honest it is not something I was worried about.
"Everyone whistled me in all of the stadiums I played in all the time any way, even before the allegation of racism.
"I tried to pay it as little attention as possible to focus on what I like to do, which is to play."
Update:
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what do you think?
zandra1944
What a load of rubbish Andrew why should United want to stitch Liverpool up have never heard anything so ridiculous
Qads72
Obviously you believe everything you hear or read in the media.
Paul Moss
Ffs get a grip .time to let it go. Never a rasist but wrong at the same time and beaten by fergie. Leave it.
josh edwards
Hold on, didn't Suarez admit to calling evra racist names, while claiming he didn't know it was a racist term due to different social standards in Uraguay? Stop pretending to be the innocent party, apologise and move on from this mess. Liverpool fc deserves better.
Carl Hutchinson
Didn't you know zandra,the whole world is against Liverpool,It's all a conspiracy!
Bryan Davies
Why would united want to stitch liverpool up thats just laughable if suarez is so innocent he would fight tooth to nail to prove it anyone would no matter what and the fa wouldnt have bard him if they didnt have enough proof and he just sat bk and took it on the chin which proves hes guilty anyone can see that!
Mark J Smith
The whole episode was laughable, how can a man with a black grandfather be a racist? Even so the whole thing was handled poorly by Liverpool and Kenny Dalglish was left hung out to dry by the Liverpool board to deal with it on his own, even Evra himself said that Suarez was not a racist so surely the correct approach would have been to issue a statement saying that if Evra has taken offence by the language Suarez used then he wholeheartedly apologises! So while Suarez and Liverpool should have issued the apology then why also didn't the Oldham player have to apologise to the man in the kop who he WRONGLY accused of racially abusing or is it just double standards and only Liverpool and Liverpool players that have to apologise?
Stephen Ireland
Spot on Mark Smith, everybody should agree with your wise words. Now lets stop going on about this and look forward to seeing him do what he really is good at playing football.
Martin Massey
Maybe but he won't be playing in Europe nor will Liverpool Dalglish gone why? bet the way he handled this didn,t go down well with his US masters.
Andrew Carridge
7:23pm on 25/5/2012
It was a stitch up by United against Liverpool nothing more than that, take no notice and come back better next year.