Racist fans should face harsh pelties: Man City's Toure

Manchester, May 12: Manchester City and Ivorian intertiol Yaya Toure believes racist fans need to be threatened with "radical sanctions" as the anti-discrimition drive gears up ahead of the 2018 football World Cup in Russia. The midfielder, who was the victim of monkey chants while playing in Russia against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League in 2013, believes the time has come to deal with such behaviour through harsh action.

"Racism is a big problem now - it is a problem in our society in general - and we need to show them they need to change, otherwise there will be a radical sanction," Toure was quoted as saying by goal.com on Tuesday. Toure wants world football's governing body FIFA to play a more active role to eradicate racism from the game and believes heavy pelties in countries like Russia and Ukraine can lead to a cleaner game. "UEFA have been doing things for 20 years now, but it cannot solve the problem itself. I think FIFA needs to work with the campaigners, the players and the media to resolve this. We are all people who care about this. IANS