I wrote on these exact pages that Luis Suarez should be banned for a year for biting Giorgio Chiellini. 

Some said it was a bit excessive but it was more about Fifa sending out a statement that dangerous play — on or off the field — will not be tolerated.

Brandao’s punishment for headbutting Thiago Motta on Sunday should make Suarez’s punishment look like a slap on the wrist.

The video evidence clearly shows that the striker is hanging around the tunnel waiting for Motta to arrive. When the PSG midfielder does, Brandao calmly walks towards him and forcefully headbutts him, breaking Motta’s nose in the process.

It was clearly a premeditated attack and by banning the player for a long time, they will send out a clear message that any form of violence will be met with this kind of punishment.

What makes no sense is the club’s stance. Bastia have not punished the player and it seems that they are instead blaming Motta for provoking their player into headbutting him.

They may have said they could punish him in the future but they had the chance to get ahead of things. 

Tearing up his contract may seem harsh to some but if he was a worker in an office and physically assaulted another member of staff, he would be fired immediately and could be facing criminal charges. Just because he is an athlete he is not above the law.

In a statement, Bastia “condemn without any ambiguity the gesture of its forward” but added that it “also deplores the equally unacceptable behaviour of certain players who don’t stop insulting and provoking their opponents.”

Players hurl verbal abuse at each other during games. We hate to admit it but it is a part of the game.

Often cameras pick it up during live games but that does not give Brandao, or any other player, the right to take the matter into their own hands.

What we don’t want to happen is for people to see this as some kind of “legendary” moment of football, which is what happened when Zinedine Zidane decided he had had enough of Marco Materazzi’s insults and headbutted the defender in his chest, which led to him being sent off in the 2006 World Cup final.

His punishment was a fine and a three-game ban — which Fifa could not impose due to his retirement. But three games in this situation isn’t enough.

Whether Fifa gets involved remains to be seen, not that I trust that they will properly dishout a punishment. 

If they do, it is likely to be cut short by the Court of Arbitration for Sport who seem to think a four-month ban for sinking your teeth into an opponent is harsh.

Suarez is now training because of their decision last Friday and by undermining the original ruling, it is plausible that the French FA will be lenient in their decision and hand out the customary three-match ban for violent conduct.

If this were to happen, players will basically be able to get away with anything they want because they know they can.

Might as well just send them to the naughty step, it seems to work for my seven-year-old sister when she gets in trouble.

So it seems the opening day defeat to Swansea and the lack of transfers this summer has led Manchester United fans to resume the Glazer Out campgain.

From the Premier League down to League Two, only Exeter City have made fewer signings than Manchester United this transfer window.

For a club with ambitions of getting back into the Champions League that is embarrassing and fans are now planning green and gold protests should the club not sign any world-class players by the end of the transfer window.

The protest is currently planned for September 14 when United host QPR.

But even if players are signed, they should still take a stand and say enough is enough.

I have to hand it to Chancel Mbemba Mangulu. 

Some people wish to have more than one birthday, though Yaya Toure wishes Manchester City would remember his but that’s another issue. Mangulu though seems to have defied all logic by having four birthdays.

The first two clubs he played for, Congolese E S La Grace and Mputu, had his birthday as August 8 1988. 

However, when playing for Congo in a Cup of Nations qualifier in 2011, his birthday was listed as November 30 1991.

When he signed for his current club, he was listed as being born August 8 1994. 

And to add to the ridiculous nature of this story, the player himself says he was born in 1990.

Though Fifa are investigating the situation, it is remarkable that no-one seems to know when he was born.

They could just ask his parents.