����ý

Former England footballer Alex Scott says racism needs to be 'stamped out' of football with 'stronger punishment' for offenders.

Scott was speaking after the alleged racist abuse suffered by Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling at Chelsea on Saturday.

Sterling was verbally abused during City's 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge.

Alex Scott, won six English league titles and was capped 140 times for England during an impressive career in women's football, she says she's sad about what happened to Sterling and says football - as well as society - should take a look at how racism is dealt with.

"It's sad that in the last couple of weeks these things have come to light, but we need to stamp it out," she added. "Strong punishment needs to be [handed out to show] you can't get away with this sort of thing anymore.

"I think not just in football, when you look across [society], diversity is needed in all forms to educate, to stop these things from happening."

Police and Chelsea FC say they are investigating the alleged racism by Chelsea fans and the Premier League says anyone found to have been racially abusive deserves to be punished.

Alex Scott isn't the only Match of the Day pundit to react after footage showed Sterling being verbally abused, Ex-Arsenal striker Ian Wright said on his twitter: "The bad old days are back!"

This incident comes just a week after a Tottenham fan was arrested for throwing a banana skin on the pitch after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored for the Arsenal against Spurs.

Racist abuse of this kind was really common in football during the 1970s and 1980s. At that time many football clubs in Britain had players of many different races and backgrounds in their teams.

Many of these footballers faced abuse from fans and even other players.

Viv Anderson, England's first black footballer told Newsround about having bananas thrown at him from the stands, while he was warming up as a substitute.

In the 1990s players, clubs and fans got together to start a campaign to try to get rid of racism in football. The campaign was first called Let's Kick Racism Out of Football, but in 1997 the name was changed to Kick It Out.

After footage emerged of Sterling receiving the alleged racist abuse, Kick It Out tweeted "We stand alongside Raheem Sterling and any other player who has to endure this kind of abuse."

Raheem Sterling also used his Instagram account to address the issue of racism in football.

The City forward said he "had to laugh" when he heard the alleged racist remarks during the game because he expects "no better".

Sterling went onto say newspapers are helping to "fuel racism" by the ways they portray young black footballers.

He pointed out the differences in tabloid reporting of how black and white players spend their wages.

Sterling posted two pictures showing headlines from the Daily Mail, one talked about a young black player, Tosin Adarabioyo buying a house, while the other headline talked about a young white footballer, Phil Foden buying his mum a home.

In fact both players were buying homes for their mothers.

The point that Sterling is making is that the young white player is shown in a more positive way than the young black player.

In his Instagram post, Sterling wrote: "You have two young players starting out their careers - both play for the same team, both have done the right thing, which is buy a new house for their mothers who have put in a lot of time and love into helping them get where they are.

"Look how the newspapers get their message across for the young black player and then for the young white player."

Since making the statement on social media, his teammates, as well as other public figures including Ben Stokes and Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker have offered their support.

Lineker commented "spot on, and well done for speaking out", while Ben Stokes, a cricketer for England, commented "Legend".

Jadon Sancho, Sterling's teammate with England, posted supportive emojis, while Fabian Delph said "well said brother".

While the Daily Mail hasn't commented following Sterling's post, the journalist who wrote the article has tweeted: "Reporters don't do headlines, it was just topical at the time. Nor, did I even make a connection of his colour - it didn't even cross my mind."

The organisation BCOMS (Black Collective of Media in Sport) which works for more diversity in the media, say that they "stand with Raheem Sterling and thank him for raising the issue of how the media portrays black footballers and communities across the country.

"We hope this serves as a wake up call not just for the newspapers, but all the media, and ask them to reassess how they treat Raheem and portray black sports men and women."