NYON: Romanian referee Ovidiu Hategan is in trouble with UEFA and the European federation’s president Michel Platini for apparently failing to react as ordered after Yaya Toure’s complaint of racist abuse in Moscow in midweek writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

Manchester City’s captain insisted, after the 2-1 win over CSKA, that he had protested to the referee during the game about abuse targeting him and other black players.

UEFA’s toughened new stance, introduced amid great fanfare in London last May, insists that the referee should broadcast a warning over the public address system and then, if trouble persists, halt the game.

Hategan did not even take the first step yet reports raised enough concerns for UEFA to open disciplinary proceedings against the Russian club who have denied any inappropriate chanting by their supporters.

Platini has ordered what UEFA describes as “an internal investigation into why the protocol for dealing with incidents of a racist nature was not applied.”

The ultimate action for match officials to abandon a game should racist abuse continue.

The procedure is as follows:

• First step: if the referee becomes aware of serious racist behaviour, or is informed of it by the fourth official, he shall, as a first step, halt the game and ask for an announcement to be made requesting the public to immediately desist from such racist behaviour.

• Second step: if the racist behaviour does not cease once the game has restarted, the referee shall suspend the match for a reasonable period of time, and ask the teams go to the dressing rooms. A further announcement shall be made to the public.

• Third and final step: if the racist conduct does not end after the game has then resumed, the referee shall definitively abandon the match as a last resort. The UEFA delegate will assist the referee, through the fourth official, in determining whether the racist behaviour has stopped, and any decision to abandon the fixture will only be taken after all other possible measures have been implemented and the impact of abandoning the match on the security of the players and public has been assessed.

UEFA will publish the findings of this internal investigation once the disciplinary case has been dealt with by its independent Control and Disciplinary Body next Wednesday.

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