Manchester City Fined £10,000 More By Uefa For Arriving Late Than Porto Are For Fans' Racist Abuse

Kick It Out? Uefa Undermine Racism In Football Again

Football's fight against racism has come under criticism after Manchester City were fined more for arriving late to resume a match than Porto were for their fans airing racial abuse.

City were fined £25,000 by Uefa for taking a minute longer to take to the field for their second-half Europa League match with Sporting Lisbon, whereas Porto were slapped with a £16,500 punishment after their supporters made monkey noises at Mario Balotelli and Yaya Toure.

Porto hosted City on 16 February during a round-of-32 Europa League clash when the noises were made at the visitors' black players.

Uefa have been heavily criticised for undermining racism in football, and their history of dealing with the topic has been farcical.

During a 2004 Spain-England friendly at Real Madrid's Bernabeu Stadium, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Jermain Defoe and Jermaine Jenas were hounded by monkey chants, with the Spanish Federation were eventually fined £45,000.

Uefa fined the Serbian football federation £16,500 in 2007 for spectators' racist abuse of England players at the Under-21 European Championship in Holland, while the Croatian FA was fined £10,000 after supporters unveiled a racist banner at the 2008 European Championship against Turkey.

Fifa meanwhile, handed the 2018 World Cup to Russia despite the country's history of inherent racism in its football sphere.

Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg were fined just paltry £2,100 on Wednesday for racist chanting by their fans during last week’s Premier League game at Lokomotiv Moscow.

And only last month, ex-Blackburn Rovers defender Christopher Samba, now at Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala, had a banana thrown at him during the team's away match at Lokomotiv.

No action was taken against Lokomotiv in 2010 either when supporters displayed a banner bearing a banana which read "Thanks West Brom", after Nigerian Peter Odemwingie was sold to the Black Country club.

The Russian Football Union's hen director general Alexei Sorokin said at the time: "In Russia 'to get a banana' means 'to fail a test somewhere'."

Another Anzhi player, ex-Real Madrid left-back Roberto Carlos, was twice the victim of banana attacks at Saint Petersburg and Samara last year as well.

Players have rarely been censured for racism either. Stuart Pearce apologised for a racial slur against Paul Ince when Nottingham Forest played Manchester United at Old Trafford in 1994, but was not fined or suspended.

Lazio's Sinisa Mihajlovic however was banned for two European games in 2000 for racially abusing Arsenal's Patrick Vieira, although Luis Suarez was given an eight-match ban suspension by the Football Association for racially insulting Patrice Evra earlier this season.

Close

What's Hot