Yaya Toure: Not enough is being done to punish racism in football

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure believes tougher sanctions should be placed on anybody found guilty of racism.

The Ivory Coast international was speaking at the launch of Fifa's Anti-Discrimination Monitoring System in London on Tuesday (12 May).

In 2013, Toure reported receiving racial abuse from Russian fans when City played CSKA Moscow in a Champions League match in Moscow.

CSKA denied any abuse took place, but Uefa ignored their protests and closed part of their ground for their next Champions League game.

However, Toure said sanctions such as closing a stadium or fining a club a nominal fine were not enough.

"For me we need to take real sanctions – not like closing part of the stadium or giving them a level of fine," Toure said.

"Now we have a couple of clubs that are bigger than a country and pay maybe £20,000 [$31,000] and something like that for me is not enough. We need to do more."

When he was subjected to the abuse in 2013, Toure called on African players to boycott the World Cup in Russia in 2018 unless instances of racism at Russian soccer matches stopped.

On Tuesday, however, Toure admitted the situation was difficult but said he wanted to fight for the cause and to continue playing regardless of the abuse he receives in the stadiums, or on other platforms such as social media.

"I've been in this same situation where I have heard monkey chants or abuse," Toure said. "It's difficult to deal with that sometimes. To be honest with you, as a sportsman, you want to finish the game, you want to continue until the end but when you hear something like that it hurts you and breaks you."

Toure welcomed the launch of Fifa's Anti-Discrimination Monitoring System which will implement the recommendations of the Fifa Task Force against Racism and Discrimination.

Fifa will work with the Fare Network and Anti-Discrimination Match Observers to monitor and report issues of discrimination in every qualification match for the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia.

All of the data will be provided to Fifa referees and the Fifa's disciplinary committee. The largest sanction that Fifa can use is the banning of a national association from international competitions.

Toure hopes this new initiative will be a positive step forward for some countries, particularly Ukraine where he played for several years and in Russia where he was subjected to abuse and has friends who still play there.

"When Fifa called to me to ask me to be involved I said yes straight away because for me something has to be done. We need to see the change and in England especially, to be honest with you, I have never seen that argument; I think it's fantastic. And that's what I want in another country, especially in that side of the world in Russia and Ukraine," he said.