England striker Emile Heskey has criticised the fine handed to Croatia by Fifa following racist chants in September’s World Cup qualifier, describing the sanction as ‘not adequate’.
Fifa imposed a £15,000 penalty on the Croatian Football Association after Heskey received racist abuse in Zagreb last month.
“As for the fine, it’s totally up to the people at the top,” said Heskey.
“What is my gut reaction to the fine? Everybody knows it’s not adequate but you’ve just got to leave it down to them. If you were asking what I’d do, it would be different to that.
“But you’ve got to respect them when they’re making a decision like that and allow them to do that. If it happens again, they’ll have to do something else.
“As for the fans’ reaction, it was a little strange, because having come back to international football, I didn’t really expect it.
“To be honest, I was a little bit surprised by it but it kind of stopped straight away. You knew it was there but it kind of blew over straight away.”
Heskey admits he is unsure whether a points deduction would be an appropriate punishment
“Deducting points? Is that going to stop the fans from chanting more, I don’t know,” the striker continued. “But, as an FA, they’ve probably got to look at it in a broader picture as well and see where they can help.
“It’s a difficult one to say ‘deduct points’ or ‘stop fans from watching football’. I don’t know.”
