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UEFa must act against racist clubs

Belgrade fans aim anti-semitic banner at Spurs

KICK IT OUT sent out a clear message to Uefa yesterday to sort out the racism problem in football after Partizan Belgrade fans held up an anti-semitic banner during a goalless draw against Tottenham on Thursday.

Paritzan fans unfurled a mock Only Fools and Horses logo and changed the words to “Only Jews and Pussies.”

Spurs have a deep, historical association with London’s Jewish community and fans took to Twitter to report the issue to Kick it Out.

The equality and inclusion organisation then informed Football Against Racism in Europe, who immediately reported it to Uefa  along with Tottenham.

Kick It Out’s media and communications manager Richard Bates pointed out that a number of countries seem to be getting away with their clubs being racist towards opposition players.

Serbia’s under-21 international Nikola Ninkovic was banned for a year by the Serbian Football Association in 2012 for racially abusing Spurs’s Danny Rose in an European under-21 Championship play-off.

Rose was left out of the squad which travelled on Thursday night, though manager Mauricio Pochettino said Rose’s absence had nothing to do with the disturbing scenes of two years ago.

And Bates has urged Uefa to finally take action against clubs and countries to prevent it from happening again in the future.

“These incidents seem to be happening in particular countries and in certain parts of Europe where they don’t take them as seriously as we do on our shores,” he said.

“Incidents aren’t dealt with in the appropriate manner within those countries — if they don’t take a firm stance and they’re allowed to slide, the reality is it will continue to happen.

“We need Uefa to take a lead, which they have done more over the last couple of years, and demonstrate clearly that these sorts of incidents are completely unacceptable.”

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