Samuel Umtiti Reportedly Racially Abused During Espanyol Match

Racism should obviously have no place in football and if Espanyol's Sergio Garcia did indeed abuse Samuel Umtiti then the forward should expect a big punishment coming his way.

In the last decade there has been a big push towards kicking racism out of football and there is no doubt that the campaign has had a big positive effect, especially in England, but we are still a long way from things being perfect.

The last few years have seen a number of high profile cases of racism on the pitch, most notably John Terry and Luis Suarez abuse of Anton Ferdinand and Patrice Evra respectively. Whilst Roberto Firmino allegedly abused Mason Holgate at the beginning of this year.

The end of the Barcelona derby on Sunday afternoon between Barcelona and Espanyol was spoilt by an angry reaction from Samuel Umtiti to something that was said to him by Espanyol forward Sergio Garcia.

Despite the referee not mentioning racism in his report Marca say that Garcia did seek out Umtiti after the match to apologise which the Frenchman accepted.

The Spanish FA could still look into the reports, especially if Barcelona report the incident. The arguments came at the end of a tense derby that finished 1-1 after Gerard Pique's late equaliser.