SOME fights aren’t worth having and Liverpool took their medicine this week when Luis Suarez pleaded guilty to making an offensive gesture to Fulham fans.

The Uruguayan served his one-match ban against Newcastle last night and should return to the side for Tuesday’s trip to Manchester City.

Despite the Reds’ anger at the treatment Suarez got both on and off the pitch that night at Craven Cottage, they reached the conclusion that contesting the improper conduct charge would be futile.

The photographic evidence meant Suarez was bang to rights and the defence that he had to endure a torrent of abuse wasn’t going to cut it.

Birmingham defender Stephen Carr was suspended for a game after making an alternative hand gesture to Aston Villa supporters last year so they were told a precedent had been set.

The Football Association will tell you that’s consistency – very similar offences dealt with in the same manner.

However, their policy simply doesn’t stand up to examination. Liverpool may have accepted the verdict without passing comment but supporters have been quick to accuse the governing body of double standards.

On Twitter there’s a photo montage of Suarez, Wayne Rooney, Gary Neville and Ashley Cole all appearing to make offensive gestures. The odd man out is Suarez because he’s the only one to be punished.

Conspiracy theorists will point to the fact that of the other three, two are current England internationals and the other was a Three Lions stalwart. The FA insist the truth is very different.

The reason no action was taken against Rooney back in May after he appeared to make a V-sign to Chelsea fans was because the FA concluded he had been photographed in the process of raising two fingers towards his eyes in the direction of the assistant as he complained about a decision.

Details about Cole’s alleged V-sign to Arsenal fans in 2007 are more sketchy but apparently there was insufficient evidence so “no action was deemed necessary”.

The other one regarding Gary Neville is interesting.

The Manchester United defender escaped censure for clearly aiming a one-finger gesture at Carlos Tevez during a Carling Cup tie against Manchester City in January 2010.

Was Neville merely in the process of scratching his nose?

In fact he had no defence but because Neville was aiming it towards another player the FA only warned him about his future conduct.

“If you as a player make a gesture to fans, it’s very different to gestures made between players,” an FA official told me.

“For a start when it’s made to fans there’s the potential for incitement. FA action when the gesture is from one player to another player is rarely taken.”

So there you have it. The same offensive gesture made by two high-profile players, both picked up by cameras and seen by millions around the world yet because Neville was ‘keeping it within the field of play’ that was okay.

It’s nonsense. Liverpool actually benefited from that crazy logic back in August when Raul Meireles celebrated Suarez’s late goal at Arsenal by raising his middle finger.

The recipient was team-mate Lucas Leiva with Meireles jokingly replicating the reaction of Emmanuel Frimpong after he had been sent off for fouling Lucas earlier in the game. Ironically, that day it was Suarez who spotted what Meireles was doing and soon put a stop to it.

Suarez shouldn’t have reacted the way he did at Fulham. His frustration boiled over and he has paid the price for it.

But the idea that the FA deal with such offences in a coherent way to act as fans’ moral guardians is laughable.

With supporters increasingly ripped off with ticket prices rocketing let’s hope the FA get their priorities right in 2012.