UEFA to investigate racism claims

UEFA admit it will be difficult to find 'hard evidence' to punish allegations of racism towards Benni McCarthy during Blackburn's clash against Wisla Krakow in Poland.

Blackburn's dramatic UEFA Cup group stage win was overshadowed when South Africa striker McCarthy squared up to Serbian defender Nikola Mijailovic as the final whistle sounded.

Rovers will contact UEFA over the matter and Europe's governing body are waiting for reports from the referee and match delegate before deciding whether sanctions are required.

If found guilty, punishments range from a warning to disqualification from a future competition, although UEFA director of communications William Gaillard sees problems in finding evidence to back up the claims.

He said: 'Benni McCarthy has been in the game for a long time now, playing at the top level, so we have no reason to doubt his word. The problem will be finding the hard evidence to pass sanctions.

'There is always the problem of finding hard evidence but at the same time the referee might have heard something. It should be in the referee's report and I heard that Blackburn people mentioned it to the delegate.'

The Football Association will support Blackburn after the latest incident of alleged racism, with similar accusations during England Under-21s' European Championship qualifier in Germany.

'If that is the case then it is obviously very disturbing,' said FA director of communications Adrian Bevington on BBC Radio Five Live.

'Unfortunately we have seen the trend in the last couple of years where when our clubs have gone away in Europe or the national side has gone away in Europe, we've seen them encounter situations of racism.

'We'll wait and see what Blackburn have to say, I'm sure they will be in contact with us if that was the case and, of course, we treat allegations of that nature very seriously and we'll work with Blackburn to speak to UEFA.'