Luis Suarez will not play in Uruguay's next nine international matches after FIFA handed a stiff sanction to the embattled striker for biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini during their group stage match on Wednesday.

FIFA said in a statement that Suarez will be suspended for nine official matches, which will start in Uruguay's upcoming last-16 match against Colombia.

The rest of the suspension will be served in Uruguay's upcoming international games, whether they be in this World Cup or in the various other official FIFA matches that Uruguay will take part in after.

"The player Luis Suarez is to be suspended for nine official matches. The first match of this suspension is to be served in the upcoming FIFA World Cup fixture between Colombia and Uruguay," FIFA said in a statement. "The remaining match suspensions shall be served in Uruguay's next FIFA World Cup matches, as long as the team qualifies, and/or in the representative team's subsequent official matches."

Aside from the nine-game ban in a World Cup, Suarez will also be barred from participating in football-related activities for the next four months and will also be ordered to pay 100,000 Swiss francs.

"The player is banned from taking part in any kind of football-related activity -- administrative, sports or any other -- for a period of four months. A stadium ban is pronounced against Luis Suarez, who is prohibited from entering the confines of any stadium during the period of the ban," FIFA said.

The four-month sanction means that Suarez will miss nine Barclays Premier League games if the 27-year-old striker decides to stay in Liverpool. He will also be ineligible for Champions League and Capital One Cup matches scheduled before the end of October.

Claudio Sulser, chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee, insisted that Suarez deserved the stiff sanction, saying that his unsportsmanlike behavior is not allowed in any football match especially in a World Cup match.

"Such behavior cannot be tolerated on any football pitch and in particular not at a FIFA World Cup, when the eyes of millions of people are on the stars on the field," Sulser said.

Uruguay Football Federation president, Wilmer Valdez, is expected to file an appeal, while Liverpool declined to talk about the sanction until they receive the final order from FIFA.

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