Bournemouth forward Antoine Semenyo has urged football authorities and the legal system to consider prison terms as punishment for racist abuse in the sport.
His comments follow what he described as a “painful” incident of abuse directed at him during Bournemouth’s Premier League opener against Liverpool.
The Ghana international, who scored twice in his side’s 4-2 defeat at Anfield, reported the matter to referee Anthony Taylor after allegedly being targeted by a pitch-side spectator.
Merseyside Police later arrested a 47-year-old man, who has since been released on bail on suspicion of an aggravated public order offence. As part of his bail conditions, the man has been barred from attending any regulated football match in the UK.
In his first public reaction, Semenyo insisted existing measures are inadequate. “Whatever the Premier League are doing, it’s not enough and there’s more that needs to be done,” he told ITV News.
He suggested stronger deterrents must be enforced. “It could be jail time, it could be banned from stadiums for a lifetime, it could be anything along the lines of that, but I feel like there has to be something else,” he added.
