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Good morning. Is biting a defender worse than spitting at them, or indeed a manager head-butting a member of the opposition? Luis Suarez has seemingly done it again, provoking headlines of ‘Jaws III’, a storm of condemnation from a majority of pundits and the need for FIFA to act quickly for the sake of the World Cup. If found guilty of biting Giorgio Chiellini, then Suarez faces a lengthy ban. In a post-match interview Suarez said that ‘situations arise on the pitch’ and therefore there was ‘no need to make a story out of it’. Now, of course there’s always been a certain amount of dark arts in cricket, rugby and football, although Norman Hunter biting your legs was never a literal description. FIFA’s disciplinary proceedings will explore an infringement of codes and then if proven how such infringement should be punished. Yet there is a bigger picture here than just whether certain actions cross the boundary of the outer edge of acceptability on a football field. And that picture is certainly bigger than maintaining the FIFA brand with corporate sponsors or a possible transfer to Barcelona. The bigger picture is more about the spirit of a game, the way it respects laws rather than simply pushes them to the limit. It takes into account that behaviour influences the next generation, and that we have a responsibility for the legacy of a beautiful game. Often sport can be a small window into our wider culture. It seems to me that there is a tendency to concentrate on the outer edge of the law, judging what is right or wrong by degrees, rather than seeing the principles at the centre – whether it be in the banking crisis or phone hacking or tax avoidance. Jesus was often confronted with such a tendency. Some teachers of the law, so concerned with being right with God, drew circles of acceptability around what you should do on the Sabbath or who you could eat with. By contrast Jesus was never concerned with those outer limits, he was more concerned to point to God’s love, mercy and justice as the source and inspiration of moral behaviour. He was also committed to the individual who needs help, as has been suggested for Suarez It is possible to try and shape behaviour by continually legislating, policing and condemning – and my own Christian tradition has not been immune from that. But I want a society which celebrates and promotes the bigger picture rather than just the limits of acceptability. Just because it’s not illegal, doesn’t mean that it is good. After all I want footballers who know not to bite opponents, rather than a world where it is compulsory that they wear gum shields.