by Kadeem Simmonds

Enough is enough. Football needs to take a stance on racism and show the world that it will not tolerate it anymore. 

In the past few weeks we have had two separate incidents of bananas being thrown on the pitch.

In Italy, Kevin Constant of AC Milan was the target from Atalanta fans last Saturday while in Spain, Villarreal targeted Dani Alves of Barcelona. 

A week after the Alves incident, fans of Atletico Madrid were caught on camera making monkey gestures at Papakouli Diop.

And the punishments? Villarreal were fined less than £10,000 and banned the fan from the stadium for life for throwing the banana. The other clubs are yet to face punishment. 

Compare that to the National Basketball Association’s stance on racism. They fined Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling $2.5 million and banned him for life for making racist comments on tape. 

Uefa fined Manchester City £49m for failing their financial fair play rules but must feel that racism isn’t that big an issue with the petty fines clubs are being handed. 

For everything Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini have to say about the issue, when it comes down to it they don’t really care. If they did then they would be dishing out harsher punishments to clubs.  

Although three years ago, Mr Blatter had the audacity to say that racism could be solved by a handshake and although he is now demanding action to be taken after the latest incident in Italy, one doubts that the consequences for the guilty clubs inolved will be that severe.

As for Platini, two years ago he said that players should be booked if they walk off the pitch when being racially abused.

Platini, the current Uefa president, issued a statement saying: “Uefa has tough rules and sanctions against all forms of discrimination for all its competitions.”

But what is £10,000 to a club that pays that amount to a largely unused squad player a week? 

All fans want to see their club win football matches and trophies. So if punishments prevented teams from doing that you may see a change in stance from crowds. 

Dock points from a club or fine them in the millions, not thousands. The club may complain that it is too harsh a punishment but I bet they will do everything in their power to make sure it doesn’t happen again. 

And what about players that have been found guilty of racially abusing other players? Banning them for a few games and fining them around a weeks wage is a farce. 

How about we terminate their contracts? If a worker in an office racially abused a co worker they would be fired on the spot so what makes footballers any different?

Entertaining the world does not mean they should be treated differently to the rest of us.