Fifa fines Croatia for fans' racism

Fifa have fined the Croatia Football Federation 30,000 Swiss francs (Dh101,742) after fans directed racist chants at an England player during a recent World Cup qualifier.

ZURICH // Fifa have fined the Croatia Football Federation 30,000 Swiss francs (Dh101,742) after fans directed racist chants at the England striker Emile Heskey during a recent World Cup qualifier. The governing body's disciplinary committee also threatened Croatia with a more severe punishment if they did not control the problem in future. Fifa said in a statement today it would use "all of the means at its disposal to eliminate this form of discrimination."

Racist chants were directed at Heskey at the Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb during the second half of England's 4-1 victory on Sept 10. Heskey later branded the fans "ignorant people" and said he tried to ignore the taunts. *AP