Racist fans are fouling the 'beautiful game'

Football likes to call itself "the beautiful game". That will not and cannot be true as long as some of its fans remain so disgusting.

Singing "Adolf Hitler, he's coming for you", mimicking the hiss of Jews being gassed in the Holocaust, making "hou, hou, hou" monkey sounds and acting like gorillas when black players have the ball, brutalising other fans with fists, knives and iron bars. Each season, the list of vile behaviour at and around football grows only longer.

Each time, football tells us the vast majority of its fans are decent folk and that hooligans are a small - even dwindling - minority, which all seems true.

Each time, club owners, managers and administrators say such outrages are intolerable, which is what was said after anti-Semitic abuse at Tottenham-West Ham last Sunday. Investigations are launched. "NO RACISM" jerseys are printed for players to wear, as they were on Tuesday by Lazio's team in Rome after hooligan violence and anti-Semitism there. Fines are handed down to clubs and countries - a token, cosmetic gesture that does nothing to hurt the perpetrators.

And each time, the business of football marches on. Around the world, the sport has erected glittering cathedrals of worship to itself, modern stadiums with hot food, clean toilets and stewards in fluorescent jackets to direct fans to seats, make them feel safe and keep the peace. Together, all this and rivers of television and sponsorship money have moved football upmarket from its working-class roots.

It wouldn't be fair to those who live off football financially and emotionally if matches, clubs or competitions were suspended for each hooligan incident, although it might leave hooligans short of alternatives to occupy their tiny minds. So the show always goes on.