The Costa Rican Football Association (Fedefútbol) has called on all the country’s football bodies to act tougher on racism and discrimination and follow FIFA’s disciplinary code after a wave of incidents marred fixtures in October.

Fedefútbol call for action was triggered after the Costa Rican Union of the First Division Clubs (Unafut) fined the clubs of Saprissa and Cartaginés with €740 for fans improper behaviour during the matches against Puntaneras and Herediano, respectively, on 26 and 27 October.

The President of Fedefútbol Eduardo Li reacted by requesting stronger sanctions such as the ones stated of FIFA’s disciplinary code and said, “These incidents are lamentable. The rules are clear when it comes to sanctioning this kind of behaviour and we will not take this lightly”.

Unafut suggested that the sanctions applied were based on the current regulation of the league and stressed their involvement in campaigning against racism, discrimination and violence in football grounds through a new law passed in June that forbids offenders to access tickets to matches for a period of between six months to three years.

The racist incidents on 26 and 27 October targeted the goalkeeper of Puntaneras Víctor Bolívar and the Herediano defender Waylon Francis both of Costa Rican heritage. In both cases the referees called a halt to the games to ask fans to stop the slurs, but the matches proceeded moments after without further action taken.