BARTLEY: TIME TO HIT RACIST PLAYERS WITH LENGTHY BANS

LIVINGSTON captain Marvin Bartley believes Ondrej Kudela should be thrown out of football for a year if found guilty of racially abusing Glen Kamara.

The midfielder, a victim of several incidents of online abuse as a player, was left ‘heartbroken’ by what happened at Ibrox on Thursday night and the follow-up picture of Slavia Prague’s ultras taunting Kamara with a banner.

And he insists UEFA must hammer the guilty parties by suspending them from the sport for 12 months.

Bartley said: ‘When players or sections of the crowd start racially abusing someone, you have to start hitting them financially.

‘Give them a year’s ban. If that player can’t feed his family and can’t earn a living then they would soon think about it.

‘A five or six-game ban makes no difference because they’re back once they serve the suspension.

‘You get a longer ban for a bad tackle. The solution is heavy fines and long bans.

‘Something has to change because it’s getting more heartbreaking every time something like this happens.

‘Now it’s time for authorities to step in and do something.

‘Do I have confidence in them?

No, I don’t. And that’s the disappointing thing.’

Rangers continued to contest the final minutes of their Europa League second leg match after Kamara was allegedly called ‘a f ****** monkey’ by Kudela.

After consulting a host of footballer contacts around Britain, Bartley wants walk-off protests to be the agreed response in order to turn the heat on UEFA.

‘We’ve had discussions about whether players should walk off the pitch,’ he added.

‘If the game is on TV, you’ll get broadcasters asking why the game isn’t going ahead anymore. Then the authorities will do something because, when it comes to finances, things happen.

‘So that’s the next step. Let’s see how good a game it is when there’s only one team playing.

‘If they want to hand out huge fines for teams walking off then that tells you all you need to know. The ball’s in their court.

‘People abusing others because of the colour of their skin — it’s the hardest thing to deal with.

‘Whatever rage you’ve ever felt in your life, times that by 100.

What happened the other day has hit me hard.

‘I’ve played against Glen a lot of times and he doesn’t react to anything.

‘So as soon as you see a player react that way then you know something really bad must have been said.

‘I hoped it wasn’t that but thought it was. A few people seem to think we have to wait until it’s all played out to know what’s happened.

‘But, as a black man, I know when you’re racially abused. And there was no time for Glen to think something up.

‘His reaction said it all. So did the reaction of players around him. I know what was said, I know what happened. It’s time for UEFA to do something.’

The Old Firm clubs yesterday followed Dundee United and Motherwell’s example in declining to take part in the pre-match taking the knee routine.

The Fir Park club claimed ‘empty gestures’ against racism in the game were no longer an answer. Bartley is fine with a different matchday approach to tackling the issue. However, he will continue making the gesture.

He added: ‘For me, personally, I will always take the knee as long as I’m allowed to do it. ‘But the fact we’re still doing it shows we have a huge, huge problem.’