Manchester City youth team coach Patrick Vieira has been praised for taking his players off the pitch after an alleged racist incident in a pre-season friendly.

The club’s head of the elite development squad made the decision after 19-year-old French midfielder Seko Fofana was allegedly racially abused by an opponent a minute before half-time during the match against HNK Rijeka in Novigrad, west Croatia.

Vieira, a Senegalese-born former France international, has received the full backing of Piara Powar, executive director at anti-discrimination network Football Against Racism in Europe.