Fifa president Sepp Blatter has claimed that sporting sanctions such as points deductions are a better punishment for fans racist behaviour. "Games behind closed doors are also included in the (Fifa) code but I regard this penalty as an extremely dubious instrument," he said. "They represent a disproportionately collective punishment. Furthermore it involves excluding innocent fans of the opposing team.
"In the final analysis matches played behind closed doors penalise football. The punishment is unduly excessive. Instead it is the troublemakers who must be punished.
"To my mind there remains only one solution to the problem: sporting sanctions are the only effective punishment. It has to cause the clubs real hurt otherwise nothing will change."
