Uefa is under pressure to punish Serie A side Lazio after their supporters aired monkey chants at Tottenham Hotspur players Jermain Defoe and Aaron Lennon during the teams' Europa League draw at White Hart Lane.
Michel Platini, the Uefa president whose organisation has long been criticised for their frivolous attitude towards racism in football, was in attendance for the game as a section of the Roman outfit's following racially abused Spurs' black players in the second-half.
Defoe was targeted by Lazio fans
Tottenham will decide on Friday whether to lodge a complaint to European football's governing body. Should they do so they would become the second English club to have done so this year, after Manchester City reported FC Porto supporters for targeting Mario Balotelli and Yaya Touré in February.
Lilywhites manager André Villas-Boas remained neutral when pressed on the subject at his post-match press conference, as he insisted he "didn't hear anything". The Portuguese did however state Uefa needed to act on the matter if there was evidence to suggest there were monkey chants.
“If the charges are proven then I think Uefa has to investigate. Uefa are very active in this kind of situation, and the overall objective is to kick racism out of football,” he said.
Platini's presence is of particular embarrassment to the French footballing legend, as Uefa's attitude toward racism will come under the microscope again should Spurs write to the body in lieu of the unsavoury flashpoints on Thursday night.
Platini's organisation have dished out paltry fines for previous incidents of racism
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 earlier this year, whereas Porto were slapped with a measly £16,500 punishment after the monkey noises made at Balotelli and Touré.
And Uefa's history with paltry fines during English clubs or international sides extends to nearly a decade.
During a 2004 Spain-England friendly at Real Madrid's Bernabeu Stadium, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Defoe and Jermaine Jenas were hounded by monkey chants, with the Spanish Federation were eventually fined £45,000.
Uefa punished 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.
Players have rarely been censured for racism either. Stuart Pearce apologised for a racial slur aimed at 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 airing a racial slur at Arsenal's Patrick Vieira, while Luis Suarez was given an eight-match ban suspension by the Football Association for racially insulting Patrice Evra last season.