Barcelona has admitted that they were already talking to Luis Suarez even before the World Cup and the bite ban happened, even though Suarez has denied it beforehand.

The Uruguayan striker have said a month before the Brazil tournament that he will be staying in Liverpool: "Don't worry, nothing is going to happen to me. I'm very happy here and my family is happy here."

However, the Catalan Club's president, Josep Bartomeu has now released a statement saying: "When we approached Suarez, it was before the World Cup. We told him that he had the right age. He had the experience.

"Playing at Liverpool gave him incredible performance and it was the right time for him to come to our club, to Barcelona."

According to a Daily Metro report, they have rumoured the negotiation before the World Cup.

The president added: "We knew from of lot of years ago that Luis Suarez likes our club, likes our city [his in-laws already live in Catalonia].

"And we have the advantage - his agent is Pep Guardiola's brother ... He's from Barca in his heart, also, so everything was perfect and created the perfect atmosphere that Luis Suarez accepted."

The La Liga club also said that they have maintained their offer to Suarez amid the biting incident which happened to Italy's Giorgio Chiellini.

The said incident has caused him a major suspension, amounting to four months and nine matches.

This is already the third time that Suarez has bit someone on the field, but Bartomeu said: "We didn't rethink this decision and we told Luis after the bite.

"He knows he did wrong. He apologized. That's very important for us.

"That means he knows that he did not do things properly and of course, coming to our city, coming to our club, there's going to be a way of managing Luis Suarez."

With reports from: mirror.co.uk