‘It’s madness’ - Rio Ferdinand calls for action after Tottenham’s Richarlison is racially abused

Rio Ferdinand has called on football to do more after Richarlison was racially abused during an appearance for Brazil.

Richarlison was in action for Brazil on Wednesday night, scoring during a 5-1 win over Tunisia in Paris.

But the Tottenham star’s performance was marred by racial abuse he received from fans in the stand.

While Richarlison celebrated his first-half goal, a banana was thrown from the stands in what was a blatant incident of racial abuse.

After the game, the Spurs star claimed racism will continue ‘every day and everywhere’ unless authorities ‘punish’ those responsible.

Ferdinand has now discussed the incident on his Vibe with Five YouTube show, and he has called for football to step up to the mark.

“Another day racism is OK and welcomed in football,” said the Manchester United legend.

“I’m not saying football can change or cure racism because I would be an idiot to think that.

“But when you’ve got your own kids waking up and saying: ‘Dad, have you seen that banana thrown on the pitch at Richarlison?’ It’s madness.

“Football can play a good part in highlighting issues and standing together to make the authorities and powers that be put things in place to protect people.

“But it ain’t happening. It’s disheartening.”

Ferdinand also pointed out that Richarlison’s kick-ups towards the end of the game got more attention, by his reckoning, than the incident of racial abuse.

“There was probably as much vitriol and hysteria on social media and in the media in general with this banana incident, racism incident, as there was when Richarlison was doing kick-ups when he got smashed,” he added.

“Let that sink in. It is mad and crazy.”

FIFA are now investigating the incident, saying they have a zero-tolerance policy on racism.

The fixture was an official FIFA exhibition, and so it falls under the authority of the global governing body.