Evra and Suarez involved in race storm

At a time when football is currently embracing Kick It Out's "One Game, One Community" action campaign to celebrate diversity and social inclusion in the game, there should be an incident such as the one which is said to have taken place at Anfield this weekend.

Manchester United defender Patrice Evra has claimed he was racially abused by Liverpool striker Luis Suarez during Saturday's game.

Evra made his claim to French television station Canal Plus, saying,

"There are cameras. You can see him saying a certain word to me at least 10 times. There is no place for that in 2011."

Evra was so incensed with Suarez's actions that both he and Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson reported the incident to referee Andre Marriner after the game.

Suarez has denied the accusations, taking to his official Facebook page to express his sadness of being at the centre of using racist language.

He wrote,

"I can only say that I have always respected and respect everybody. We are all the same. I go to the field with the maximum illusion of a little child who enjoys what he does, not to create conflicts."

Lord Herman Ouesley, Chair of Kick It Out, said any footballer guilty of racism should face "severe action" both from The FA and the player's club, but "you would have to be able to prove it beyond reasonable doubt".

"There were incidents in the second half and Evra seemed to get very agitated so something was obviously bugging him because he was quite incensed. But if this happened he should have brought it to the attention of the referee at the time. No doubt The FA will take the matter seriously and consider the complaint fully in order for them to take appropriate action."

A statement from The FA on Saturday night said,

"Referee Andre Marriner was made aware of an allegation at the end of the fixture and subsequently reported this to The FA. The FA will now begin making enquiries into the matter."

Football is a reflection of society and there have been a number of incidents which suggest there are still elements of evil which need to be eradicated. Kick It Out's campaign over the years has gone a long way to challenge perceptions and change the landscape of the game.

But there have been regular occurrences of racism in football, especially in Spain where the most recent incident happened in May when Barcelona's Sergio Busquets allegedly called Real Madrid's Marcelo a "monkey". And it seems that it will take a while for the country to clean up its act, with Busquets' teammate Dani Alves conceding racism in Spanish football will never go way.

While we await the investigation to get underway to clear up what happened at Anfield between Suarez and Evra, let's be sure that we don't brush such incidents under the carpet and real action is taken such as the one suggested by Lord Ouesley.

Picture: Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra