Ferdinand chants

           

   A significant number of the 3,000 England fans in San Marino joined in the singing of a song suggesting the brothers should be burned on a bonfire and it was suggested the chant had racist overtones because Anton Ferdinand was the target of racist abuse from former England captain John Terry.From the reports we have seen I personally think there was an undercurrent of race there, and other people have thought that it has been imbued with racist overtones.FARE's executive director Piara Powar believes world governing body FIFA should take action and he said: England fans have been reported to FIFA by anti-racism body FARE after aiming sick taunts at Rio and Anton Ferdinand during last week's World Cup qualifier against San Marino."Although we did not have observers at the match we have pulled together evidence sent to us including media comment and have passed that on to FIFA.Whether FIFA think that is strong enough to take action is another question entirely and we accept that it is certainly an unusual report.I think that it's one of those things that is very subtle. We would say racism and other forms of discrimination is not always banana throwing and monkey chants. It can be very subtle and the people collating the reports believed it is strong enough to send on to FIFA.