Monday 11 February 2019 14:54, UK
Cardiff defender Sol Bamba has urged football supporters to do more to report racist incidents after the results of Sky Sports News' investigation into the issue were released.
A Sky Data poll, on behalf of Sky Sports News, revealed only 29 per cent of fans who regularly attend matches in the UK that had witnessed a racist incident had reported it.
Furthermore, 74 per cent of those who had reported an incident said they were not sure authorities had acted upon the information.
Reacting to those figures on SSN, Bamba said: "Obviously, as a person of colour, it touched me and affected me. I'm surprised at those numbers.
"What upset me is that only one in three report it. I think we need to do more because unfortunately, people think, if we report it, nothing's going to come out of it. That's the problem.
"There's no place for it in this game now, or society in 2019. I think as a whole, we have to do more.
"I feel like we made progress, but we've gone back now. Recently a few incidents happened in games, in Italy and here. We made two steps forward and now three steps back.
"It has to be completely gone now because there's no place for it in the game."
Figures from the poll also showed 31 per cent of fans who witnessed racism at a game did not report it because they did not believe authorities would take action.
Bamba was again concerned by those figures, and urged the powers that be to take more severe action against those found to have committed acts of racism within stadiums.
"People have to make sure they report it, and when they do, there has to be a punishment.
"Football's a beautiful game. We want to talk about goals and celebrations, but if they don't do it right, the club has to be punished and the fans have to be punished.
"The punishment has to be drastic. Proper punishments, no two-match bans, because that doesn't make any difference."
'Tackling Racism' will be broadcast on Sky Sports News on Monday February 11 at 7pm with a panel of guests including former England striker Emile Heskey, Troy Townsend from Kick It Out and an interview with West Ham's Michail Antonio.
