Ghana forward Antoine Semenyo has urged football authorities and the legal system to introduce harsher punishments, including prison sentences, for individuals found guilty of racist abuse in the sport.
The 25-year-old Bournemouth striker was subjected to racist abuse during his side’s Premier League opener against Liverpool, forcing the match to be briefly halted after he reported the incident to referee Anthony Taylor.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the incident, Semenyo stressed that current measures are failing to deter offenders.
“Whatever the Premier League are doing, it’s not enough and there’s more that needs to be done,” he told ITV News.
He argued that only stronger sanctions would bring meaningful change: “It could be jail time, it could be banned from stadiums for a lifetime, it could be anything along the lines of that, but I feel like there has to be something else.
Meanwhile, Merseyside Police confirmed the arrest of a 47-year-old man in connection with the incident.
He has been released on conditional bail and is barred from attending any regulated football match in the UK as part of his bail terms.
Source: Samuel Ekow Amoasi Appiah
