Mike Maignan: FIFA President Calls for Tougher Measures After Racism Incident at Udinese

• Mike Maignan has received support from FIFA's President, Gianni Infantino
• The AC Milan goalkeeper was allegedly racially abused in Udine on January 20
• The former Lille goalkeeper walked off the pitch with his teammates supporting his decision

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has sent out a strongly-worded statement on the fight against racism after ugly scenes marred the Udienese game vs AC Milan on January 20.

AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan alerted the referee of the chants behind his goals and walked off the pitch after the half-hour mark.

His teammates joined him in solidarity with the game grinding to a halt, with the officials now forced to step in.

"What happened in the first half is that I heard monkey noises at the first goal-kick and said nothing. I heard it again the second time I went to get the ball. I told the fourth official and my bench what happened. I was angry because this wasn't the first time it had happened," said the French goalkeeper, as quoted by BBC Sports.

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Maignan eventually agreed to return to the game, with the Rossoneri forced to dig deep to stage a 3-2 comeback. Noah Okafor scored in stoppage time to complete the turnaround.

Infantino's message against racism

Infantino has called for harsher actions to discourage a repeat of similar incidents in a message shared on FIFA Media.

"We need ALL the relevant stakeholders to take action, starting with education in schools so that future generations understand that this is not part of football or society."

The Swiss executive also called for the adoption of more additions to the 'three-step' process.

"As well as the three-step process (match stopped, match re-stopped, match abandoned), we have to implement an automatic forfeit for the team whose fans have committed racism and caused the match to be abandoned, as well as worldwide stadium bans and criminal charges for racists."

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Sports Brief also reported that Cameroon legend Carlos Kameni advised Vinicius Junior against being provocative towards the fans during games.

The Real Madrid winger has suffered incessant cases of racial abuse, with seven people being arrested last year during their La Liga match against Valencia.