Kevin Prince Boateng's protest was vital but does not offer a long term solution

2012’s most stupid argument (are too many goals in football a bad thing? Ummmm no.) got off to a slow start with Manchesters City and United, and even QPR, beginning the year with clean sheets intact.

However, one thing not set to go away in 2013 is the ugly issue of racism. Kevin Prince Boateng was roundly applauded in the world of football this week after refusing to play on following racist abuse from the stands at a friendly match against Pro Patria (Latin for ‘For the Fatherland’... coincidence?).

There were racist chants aimed at a number of black Milan players throughout and midway through the first half Boateng decided enough was enough. He picked up the ball, booted it toward the abusive section and walked off. He was quickly followed by his team-mates and, tellingly, their actions were met by applause from the majority of the crowd and a swift outpouring of support from their fellow professionals on Twitter.

Rio Ferdinand, Vincent Kompany and Patrick Vieira were quick to offer their solidarity and Boateng has since said that he would walk off again but this is where the complications begin. As a wake up call to FIFA this action was very important but it cannot be the way forward in the long term.

Clarence Seedorf argued that walking off at every incident of racism puts the power in the racists’ hands and it is hard to disagree with him. If players were to refuse to complete a competitive game what could the ref do? The three options I can see are:

A) Awarding a defeat against the team refusing to play,

B) Ordering the game to be replayed behind closed doors, or

C) Awarding a defeat against the team of the abusive fans. 

Unfortunately, none of these are viable. 

Lets take the first two options. It is not hard to imagine a situation where a team is 3-0 down with ten minutes to go. A few friends have had a few drinks and think, "I know how to save this game!" The monkey chants begin, the opposition walk off and hey presto, a defeat becomes a win, or at least the chance to start from 0-0. These options not only fail to stop racism but could effectively reward it.

The third option seems fairer on the victims of abuse but it is certainly not foolproof. A lot of clubs fail to sell out their grounds and there is nothing to stop groups of opposition supporters buying tickets for the 'wrong' end and doing the exact same thing, abusing their own players to get three points for their team. It seems like perverse logic but these are not reasonable people. Jacob Steinberg highlighted in this piece the abuse Carlton Cole gets from his own West Ham fans on a regular basis.

The only thing I can see really stopping incidents like this is for FIFA to take radical action and give referees the power to stop matches until the perpetrators have been identified and removed from the ground. The club involved would then be responsible for ensuring that these people were banned for life. This may seem like a drastic measure but once they have been found and banned they will not be back. It would involve clubs policing themselves more heavily, possibly a greater amount of CCTV and even for fans to be brave and inform on their own, but the reaction to Boateng shows that a game without racism is what the vast majority want.

FIFA is notoriously slow in implementing modern solutions and it's years of resistance to goal line technology centred on how this would disrupt the flow of the game, so admittedly this resolution is unlikely, but it would represent a massive step forward and a show of respect to it's players.

Boateng has given FIFA a wake-up call and told them that players are no longer prepared to take racist abuse. Let's hope they respond by ensuring it doesn't need to happen more again.