Referee failed to report racist abuse

Spain escaped with a fine of less than 65,000 over the racist abuse of England's black players because the incidents did not appear in the referee George Kasnaferis's report.

The world governing body FIFA was concerned that any punishment ordering Spain to play international matches behind closed doors - or even a suspended sentence - would have led to a legal challenge in the Spanish courts.

Without Kasnaferis's testimony about the subject in his match report, FIFA's disciplinary committee considered, the imposition of a fine was the limit of their powers.

Fears of a legal challenge led to the fine and reprimand that was handed down on Tuesday. However, sources at the Football Association expressed their dissatisfaction with FIFA's punishment.

"Everyone in the stadium - and everyone watching on television - could hear the abuse," said one. "It is beyond belief that the referee did not mention it in his report."

This was a test case for FIFA's disciplinary committee, which has never had to consider racist incidents. Those involving other international teams - England were fined £67,125 for racist chanting in a Euro 2004 qualifier against Turkey - have occurred in matches organised as part of a UEFA competition and have been handed down by UEFA. England's trip to Spain was a friendly fixture under the auspices of FIFA.

The British sports minister, Richard Caborn, believes FIFA has left itself open to accusations that it has not treated the abuse seriously enough. "I think it is an opportunity missed for FIFA to have stamped its authority on the incident and shown that football and sport in general is not going to tolerate racism," said Caborn. "We were looking for some symbolic action to say that we cannot allow this sort of behaviour - and FIFA has not done that."

Caborn also called on FIFA to review its procedures regarding racist incidents. "I hope now that in the longer term it will give authority to the fourth official to suspend matches where there is racist abuse of the type we witnessed in Madrid and, if the chanting continues, then to abandon games altogether," he said.

There will be no appeal from the governing body of football in Spain, where the reaction to the punishment has been comparatively muted. In the media the fine has been described as a "multazo" rather than a "multa" - a big fine, rather than just a fine - and reports have echoed FIFA's threat that any recurrence will lead to games behind closed doors.