merelygifted:

…[W]e get closer to the point where someone, perhaps a team, perhaps one or two players, are going to walk off. It will be a kind of tipping point. This week the story of Padiham FC has made waves, a non-league team fined by an FA-convened panel for doing exactly this when their goalkeeper was racially abused.

The idea that the guardians of the national game should punish members of the public for refusing to endure intolerable working conditions is, of course, laughable. In practical terms a change to FA rules is required, an exception put in place to cover such provocation. Nobody should ever again be fined for leaving a pitch where they have been racially abused.

The FA may fear a spate of walk-offs, copycats, games abandoned in confusing circumstances. It should be far more worried by the fact racists feel they can express themselves with impunity within its premises.

Football at the level of the Lancashire and Cheshire FAs should set an example to the rest of society on these issues. The professional game, meanwhile, has shown itself to be an entirely commercial concern, to be uninterested in anything beyond the bottom line. Faced with this it hardly surprising some players may feel direct action is the only real solution to this problem, that something will only be done when the product is disrupted. If and when that time comes anyone with a genuine interest in football’s welfare will support them.

Any player who walks off over racism deserves all of football’s support | Football | The Guardian