Mark Andrews on Saturday: Football can tackle racism, if the will is there

Racism is not a football problem, it is society's problem, said Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho after his club's supporters subjected Chelsea's Antonio Rudiger to vile abuse.

He said the game was 'a microcosm of society' and simply reflected problems ingrained throughout the country.

Now, I would never dream of accusing Jose of passing the buck, but I disagree. Perhaps I've led a sheltered life, but I cannot think of any other environment where people routinely shout foul-mouthed abuse at others because of their ethnic origin. Such brazen bigotry is almost entirely confined to the football stadium.

Maybe part of the reason for this is that the game has come to tolerate it. Club and FA officials mouth platitudes about zero tolerance, but the yobs know they can, and usually will, get away with it.

Some say the answer is for players to walk off the pitch, as England did in Bulgaria, but that is probably giving the yobs the attention they crave.

Prof Ellis Cashmore, who has done extensive research into the subject, believes genuine fans should challenge the racists over their behaviour. But if a gang of knuckle-scraping hooligans around me start shouting foul abuse, I'm not sure anything I say will make much difference. This is a job for the police – and that is the real crux of the matter.

Top-level football is awash with cash these days. Even fringe players earn millions for sitting on the subs' bench. Our top football clubs can easily afford to shell out for extra policing, for more stewards, and for better CCTV. And given that clubs now record who sits in which seat, tracking down the perpetrators should not be hard to do.

Extra policing may mean Jose has a little less to spend on his playing budget, it might mean some of the players might have a few hundred grand a week less to spend on pink Range Rovers or gold electric gates. But don't tell me football does not have the means to stamp out racism, if the will is there.

CHRISTIE Lee has accused her daughter's school of being 'bah humbug' after telling 13-year-old Poppy to remove a Christmas tree from her head.

When I say Christmas tree, what I actually mean is that Poppy stuck a plastic water bottle on her bonce, wrapped her hair round it and then topped it off with fairy lights.

Look, I know kids like to push the boundaries, but it's one thing sneaking Brylcreem into the school toilets or doing your tie up back to front, and another walking around with a Christmas tree on your head.

In a few years' time Poppy will be looking for a job, and what's the betting she ­– or her mother – will be claiming 'discrimination' when she finds her taste for the unconventional is not shared with employers.

Instead of moaning about the school, perhaps Christie would do better teaching her daughter that the real world does not revolve around teenage whims.