Patrice Evra, the Manchester United defender at the centre of the Luis Suárez racism case, has been accused of overreacting and "crying like a baby" in an astonishing attack by Gus Poyet, a friend of the Liverpool striker.

Poyet's condemnation flies in the face of the Kick It Out campaign's instruction for footballers to report anything they consider to be racial slurs. But the Brighton manager believes Suárez has been harshly treated and his dismay about his fellow Uruguayan being charged by the Football Association manifested itself in an outburst about the behaviour of the alleged victim.

"I believe Luis Suárez, it's simple," Poyet said. "I played football for seven years in Spain and was called everything because I was from South America, and I never went out crying like a baby, like Patrice Evra, saying that someone had said something to me."

Poyet, who has befriended Suárez since the striker moved to Liverpool from Ajax in January, is not convinced the FA has enough evidence to warrant a charge of using racial insults. Suárez has denied the allegations and will plead not guilty.

"I'm surprised, in a really sad way, that he has been charged," Poyet said. "Really sad. I think it's worse to charge someone because you trust one person when you have no proof.

"I'm really sad about this charge as it's going to become too easy. I can make a complaint about any opposition manager and if I take it as far as I can he's going to get charged. Why are we going to take one person's word over another? It's too risky."

Those comments will go down badly at Old Trafford and may provoke the United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, into making a response when he holds his weekly press briefing on Friday. Evra, who alleges he was called a variation of the N-word "at least 10 times", has decided not to comment until the case is heard.

Poyet, whose playing career includes spells at Real Zaragoza, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, appeared to be saying Evra should never have made a complaint. However, he contradicted that view when asked about the Fifa president Sepp Blatter's comments that victims of racial slurs should shake hands with their abusers at the end of matches and not take the matter further. "I respect him as Fifa president but I don't listen to him when he talks about football," he said.