The soap opera that is sports always rivets for what takes place on the battle field.

But often times, the stories that take place far away from the pitch are just as unique and special. They make for some interesting conversation and add an element to the world of sports that moves into the social, political and economic realm.

This year featured a number of off-pitch events that continued to elevate the dynamics of soccer and add new elements that are rarely discussed.

As part of our Best of 2014 feature series, writers David Salazar and Edwin Molina look at two off-pitch events that really brought the soccer conversation to a new level.

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Qatar or No Qatar?
By David Salazar

The 2014 World Cup was obviously at the top of everyone's minds when it came to soccer.

But a World Cup inevitably spurs conversation about other such tournaments to come. And no prospective tournament has created as much controversy as the one slated to take place in 2022 in Qatar. Since 2010 when it was announced that the middle eastern region would host the tournament, there have been questions over the climate and then over slave labor. And those conversations continued with new wrinkles added.

For most of the year, the conversation centered on switching the time of the tournament from summer to winter, much to the chagrin of domestic leagues and the wealthy clubs that would have to stop their seasons to accommodate FIFA's big tournament. This issue has not been resolved, though FIFA president Sepp Blatter has repeatedly stated that his intention is to put the tournament in the winter time.

But the bigger issue that has come to the fore has revolved around the ethics of the bidding process. Many questioned how Qatar won the vote in 2010, and since then, there have been investigations into this tournament and even the one in 2018 regarding the viability of the methods used to award the locales. The story has not even ended yet with resignations and even greater concerns over the corruption of the organization at large.

This is certainly not the last time we'll hear about this story, and it should make for some interesting headlines in 2015 and beyond.

The Cannibal of Ajax Strikes Again
By Edwin Molina

The world was introduced to both the best and worst of Luis Suarez at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

One could easily argue that the Uruguayan striker was easily a Top Three player going into the world going into the June tournament after sharing the Golden Shoe Award, given to the leading goalscorer in league matches from the top division of every European national league, along with Cristiano Ronaldo, after both players scored 31 goals in their respective leagues. Suarez added 12 assists to his 31 goals, winning the EPL Player of the Year award that season.

With Suarez's innate skill to find the back of the net -- including scoring the most goals (11) during the South America World Cup qualifiers -- Uruguay looked like a real dangerous team that could go toe-to-toe with Italy and England in Group D. As the country's all-time leading scorer with 39 goals in international competition, Suarez hungered to show the world he belonged on the same stage with Real Madrid/Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona/Argentina's Lionel Messi.

Suarez began his World Cup campaign on the bench against Costa Rica recovering from a previous knee injury with Uruguay figuring that Costa Rica would be easy pickings as the prepared against the European powerhouses Italy and England. But his absence from the team was noticeable with Diego Forlán and Edinson Cavani not having the firepower to score more than one goal, getting stymied by Costa Rican keeper, Keylor Navas.

After going down against Costa Rica, Suarez found himself in the starting lineup against England and carried his team to victory. Suarez opened up the score, heading a Cavani cross past English keeper Joe Hart to put Uruguay up 1-0. England would tie up the game, but Suarez capitalized on Hart and Steven Gerrard's failure to properly clear the ball making him pay by blasting the game-winning goal to defeat England 2-1.

But Suarez would switch into his self-destructive mode that has plagued him his entire career in the game against Italy. In the 79th minute of the match, Suarez bit Juventus centre-back Giorgio Chiellini on his shoulder as they were jostling for position in the box. Atletico Madrid's Diego Godín would score two minutes later, but Uruguay's victory would be overshadowed by Suarez's meltdown.

To casual fans who watch soccer every four years, the reaction was more of surprising, "What?" as news started to spread that Suarez had bitten Chiellini. To hardcore soccer fans familiar with the Uruguayan striker's body of work, it was more a question of, "Again?" considering his past history.

Suarez had previously eaten suspensions for biting opponents. The first incident came in November 2010 when Suarez played for the Netherlands' Eredivisie club Ajax Amsterdam after he chomped on PSV Eindhoven's midfielder Otman Bakkal's neck. Ajax suspended him for two games while the Dutch soccer ruling body, the KNVB, suspended him for seven games.

Ajax would dump the Uruguyan, selling him off to Liverpool while he served that ban. But "The Cannibal of Ajax" would strike again in April 2013, this time taking a chunk out of Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic, which went unnoticed by the referee. The English Football Association (FA) would suspend Suarez for 10 games.

Suarez's latest incident would cost him dearly with FIFA handing down a nine-matche ban from international play and a fine of 100,000 Swiss francs ($110,000 USD). Suarez's penchant for bad decisions would have repercussions for many across the board.

With suspension being handed down effective immediately, Suarez would not only miss the rest of the Brazil World Cup, which hurt Uruguay losing their top scorer as they headed into the Round of 16, but he also will miss the 2015 Copa América, which "Los Charrúas" were among the favorite to win the tournament, handcuffing Uruguay as they prepare to defend their title having won the 2011 Copa América in Argentina.

The Suarez incident would cost Liverpool dearly. Liverpool spent a club-record £22.8 million ($38,821,560.00) to attain Suarez's services after he bit Bakkal and would flip his contract into a profit selling him off to La Liga's Barcelona for £75 million ($48,206,720.25). But much like Uruguay, Liverpool, which finished in second place after the 2013-2014 season, has struggled to replace Suarez's firepower, languishing in ninth place and getting embarrassingly bounced out of the 2014-2015 Champions League tournament.

Liverpool attempted to replace Suarez's 31 goals with former AC Milan star Mario Balotelli, but the mercurial Italian striker, who brings his own baggage to the club, has been a bust.

"We got nearly 80 percent of our goals missing from last season between a player that we sold and Daniel Sturridge," Liverpool coach Brendan Rodgers said after losing to Newcastle United in November to the BBC. "So we are trying to find ways to win games. It has been hit-or-miss this season."

Suarez's bite is even having an impact on Barcelona, where they have to figure out how the prodigious scorer will fit in with playing alongside Messi and Brazilian star Neymar. Neymar and Messi were clicking on all cylinders as they were finally gaining a comfort zone playing together. The addition of Suarez adds a new sense of uncertainty as Suarez tries to assimilate playing along such lethal scorers.

While Suarez has said that he learned his lesson after the incident at World Cup, especially after the having an such a huge impact on his teams, fans of the sport still wonder if "The Cannibal of Ajax" finally gets it or whether he will strike again.

Honorable mention: The Garcia Report is having huge repercussions on the soccer international governing body known as FIFA. While the report still remains top secret, Michael Garcia's investigation into the bidding process for the 2018 Russia World Cup and the 2022 Qatar World Cup shed a light into how business is done, which may be why FIFA wants the report to stay a secret.

FIFA released a 42-page redacted summary of the final results of the investigation, but Garcia quickly denounced the summary, saying that it had "erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions." The former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York resigned from his position in protest as several FIFA executive committee members such as Jim Boyce, Jeffrey Webb and Sunil Gulati, as well as FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne and EPL chief executive Richard Scudamore all are pushing back against FIFA to make the entire report public.

While FIFA has insisted vehemently that the Russia and Qatar will not lose their World Cup hosting rights, should the full report ever become public, heads may roll at FIFA if their business practices are ever exposed.

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