Neil Warnock, the Queens Park Rangers manager, believes the only way to force Fifa president Sepp Blatter to resign is by every black player refusing to play in the next round of international fixtures.
The sincerity of Blatter’s apology was also questioned by Warnock, who said: “Racism does happen on the field of play and the shaking of a hand just doesn’t put it right. But who is going to sack him?
“I think the only way we could get him out of the situation that he is in if every black player in the country, in every country, refused to play in the next international game. Nothing else is going to get him out until he wants to go.”
Warnock, whose defender Anton Ferdinand is involved in a race controversy following allegations against Chelsea and England captain John Terry, doubted whether Fifa’s president is concerned about opinions from England.
He said: “He’s a clever old man. You can make any apology sound sincere if you want to. I don’t think he’ll give two hoots. Not about England.”
Arsène Wenger performed his own version of a Blatter retreat by advocating a ‘zero tolerance’ policy on racism - just three weeks after he had claimed, “On the pitch you are not always politically correct”.
The Arsenal manager raised eyebrows last month when he suggested, in reference to the race row involving Liverpool’s Luis Suárez, that little credence could be given to what was said in a “passionate situation” during a match.
“You go to zero tolerance - the players will always adapt,” he said. “If they are punished when they do it, they will shut up.
For you something might be acceptable and for me not, so that’s why it’s better that you go down the zero tolerance road. “You are not always politically correct on the pitch. But I question I ask you is, ‘Do you punish it or not?’ And, if you want to get it out, you have to punish it.”