FIFA President comments on Sheffield Wednesday racism incident and calls for ‘automatic forfeit’ going forward

The Owls were beaten 2-1 by the Sky Blues at Hillsborough, but racist gestures towards Palmer marred the afternoon and took centre spot in terms of post-game discussion.

It wasn’t the only such event over the weekend after AC Milan’s Mike Maignan walked off during their game against Udinese following complaints of racist chanting, and FIFA President Gianni Infantino says that more needs to be done to try and stamp it out of the game.

On behalf of FIFA, Infantino made the following statement, “The events that took place in Udine and Sheffield on Saturday are totally abhorrent and completely unacceptable. There is no place for racism or any form of discrimination - both in football and in society. The players affected by Saturday’s events have my undivided support.

“We need ALL the relevant stakeholders to take action, starting with education in schools so that future generations understand that this is not part of football or society.

“As well as the three-step process (match stopped, match re-stopped, match abandoned), we have to implement an automatic forfeit for the team whose fans have committed racism and caused the match to be abandoned as well as worldwide stadium bans and criminal charges for racists.

“FIFA and football shows full solidarity to victims of racism and any form of discrimination. Once and for all: No to racism! No to any form of discrimination!”