Roma's Justin Kluivert Calls for Racist Fans to 'Go to Prison'

Roma winger Justin Kluivert has suggested that fans who racially abuse players online should be imprisoned.

The 20-year-old told Sky Sports' Bryan Swanson: "People that do that [racist posts] have to, maybe, go to prison. It has to stop. It's not on me, I'm not so smart to fix that!"

He also said identity checks that prevent people from posting anonymously on social media could help: "Yes, something like that, because you can always see whose account it is or something. I hope so."

Kluivert's comments follow a number of cases this season in which players have been racially abused by supporters in stadiums and online.

Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham and Manchester United's Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford were abused after missing penalties. Abraham's team-mate Kurt Zouma was also targeted after he scored an own-goal.

In Serie A, Romelu Lukaku was subjected to racist jeers and monkey chants by Cagliari supporters while playing at the Sardegna Arena for Inter Milan.

Eurosport's Siavoush Fallahi relayed the Belgian's reaction and a letter written to him by Inter's ultras in which they defended Cagliari's fans, rather than support their player:

TopCalcio24 pundit Luciano Passirani was sacked earlier in September after he said the only way to stop Lukaku was to give him "10 bananas to eat."

Hellas Verona supporters also aimed monkey chants at AC Milan's Franck Kessie, while on Sunday a match had to be stopped for several minutes after Atalanta fans abused Fiorentina's Dalbert.

ESPN FC's Andrew Cesare took issue with the responses of Verona and Atalanta:

At The Best FIFA awards on Monday, FIFA president Gianni Infantino condemned racism in football and society:

Former footballer Jan Aage Fjortoft does not believe football's governing bodies have done enough to combat the issue, though:

Per BBC Sport, Cagliari were cleared of abusing Lukaku by an independent panel, which deemed there to be insufficient evidence to punish the club or the fans, despite acknowledging that chants and whistles were aimed at him.

The club have avoided sanctions despite their supporters being involved in several incidents of racial abuse towards Sulley Muntari, Blaise Matuidi and Moise Kean stretching back to 2017. In 2010, Cagliari were fined €25,000 after Samuel Eto'o was abused.