Cole calls on Spanish to tackle bigots

Carlton Cole today called on the Spanish Football Federation to tackle the problem of racism or risk developing a reputation as a racist nation.

The England Under-21 striker was one of several players racially abused in Tuesday's 1-0 defeat to their Spanish counterparts and the shameful behaviour was repeated last night.

Cole is adamant that something has to be done to eradicate a problem he has not encountered in England.

The Chelsea striker, on loan at Aston Villa, said: "I don't know what's going on with Spanish football at the moment and they need to put a plug in it. If they carry on the way they are they'll be seen as a racist nation and they surely don't want that. Football's very big over there and they don't want to be seen as racists.

"It's unheard of in England at the moment so why should racism exist in Spain. They've got enough black players in their league and they need to sort it out.

"I don't know what they're going to do to crack down on it but they have to do something fast."

Cole revealed that even children in the Alcala stadium made monkey chants every time he, Darren Bent and Glen Johnson received the ball.

He said: "It wasn't really direct in my face but I could hear it every time I was on the ball. Every time I got the ball I could hear 'Boo Boo Boo' and I just had to laugh it off really.

"It's unbelievable that it's still going on and even the little kids were doing it. It was going around the whole stadium. I tried not to take it to heart and just concentrated on my game. There's not much we can do and it's up to the Spanish FA. They really have to start taking racism seriously."