The beautiful game turned ugly in Italy Sunday night when fans repeatedly directed racist chants at home team AC Milan's Mario Balotelli, forcing referee Gianluca Rocchi to cancel the match.
In March, Giorgos Katidis, a 20-year-old Greek soccer player, was banned from international competition for giving a Nazi salute in Athens. (Katidis later claimed he did not know what the salute meant.) But policing an anonymous crowd of rowdy fans is another matter.
To that end, it appears FIFA, soccer's international governing body, is set to take action against clubs if their supporters act, as Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri put it, "backward" and "uncivilized."
The Task Force Against Racism and Discrimination, chaired by FIFA Vice-President Jeffrey Webb, held its first meeting last week to discuss "the application of sanctions in cases of racist and discriminative acts."
A draft resolution is expected later this month, but the task force already publicized its sanction proposals, which, depending on the severity of the offense, may include matches played without fans, a club's expulsion from a competition, point deductions, or relegation to a lower league.
"One of the opportunities this task force has is its vast reach throughout FIFA's 209 member associations, where we can implement the resolutions in every region and every country where football is played, bringing universality to the mechanisms that combat racism and discrimination, Webb said."
FIFA President Sepp Blatter pledged his commitment to ending racism in soccer after last night's debacle.
Appalled to read about racist abuse in Serie A last night. Tackling this issue is complex, but we're committed to action, not just words.
— Joseph S Blatter (@SeppBlatter) May 13, 2013
In January, Milan's Kevin-Prince Boateng and his teammates left the field after racist abuse during a match.
It's important to note that FIFA isn't the only soccer regulatory body taking a stance against racism.
Last week, the Union of European Football (UEFA) proposed a minimum 10-match ban on players found guilty of racial abuse. And on racism in the stands, UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino said there will be "full closure of the stadium and a minimum fine of $65,500."
Despite team rosters now being filled with players from all over the world, and ever-increasing diverse fan bases for teams like Manchester United and Real Madrid, soccer still struggles with racial abuse in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere.
Of course, this is not only a sports issue, it's a societal problem, one that can't alone be solved by sanctions from athletic authorities.