Fifa to probe Spain's race abuse shame

Football's world governing body, Fifa, has said that it will launch a full investigation into the racist abuse meted out by Spanish spectators at England's recent friendly international.

Fifa said that it was concerned about the latest surge of racism in football and said it "harshly condemns these incidents".

Widespread outrage followed Tuesday's international when Spanish spectators racially abused black England players; monkey-chants were made every time a black player touched the ball.

The English FA immediately sent letters of protest to both Fifa and Uefa, and the Spanish FA, complaining at the way in which Shaun Wright-Phillips, Ashley Cole and Jermaine Defoe were singled out for abuse.

Black players were also abused on Monday night's U-21 friendly match between Spain and England.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter expressed his "horror" at the recent spate of incidents and appealed to the global football community and society in general to reject racism of any kind.

"There is no room whatsoever for racism or discrimination in our sport. On the contrary, football is a tool for building bridges and nurturing tolerance. The world is already too full of conflict that has its roots in racism and discrimination. Football has a positive influence that can and must be used to eradicate this scourge," he said.

Speaking yesterday, a No. 10 spokesperson said that the Prime Minister was "very disappointed" by the abuse.

Sports Minister Richard Caborn has indicated that he will be writing to his Spanish counterpart to convey his sense of disgust at the crowd's reaction.

Speaking after the clash at Madrid's Bernabeu stadium, the FA's head of media, Adrian Bevington, said the volume and nature of the taunts was a phenomenon not seen in England "for the best part of 20 years".

"You struggle to find words to explain the kind of behaviour we have seen inside this stadium. It's completely unacceptable," he said.

"Football as a whole should stand up and express its disgust at what has gone on here. Quite frankly, it's a disgrace."

Fifa said it would also launch a probe into two other incidents – last weekend's French club game between Bastia and St Etienne, where fans attacked Bastia's coloured players, and last month's Champions League match between Panathinaikos and Arsenal where players for the English club were subjected to racist abuse.

(gmcg/sp)