Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku says racism in football should not be left to the various football federations to deal with.
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Racism remains a big problem in football and there were some notable instances in some of Europe's top leagues where players have been subjected to racist chants by supporters.
In the Netherlands, Ajax Amsterdam and Heracles stopped playing for a minute as part of a anti-racism protest after Excelsior's Ahmad Mendes Moreira suffered racist abuse Den Bosch fans.
“I think last year was a sad year for the world in general, lots of unnecessary incidents happened, especially in football where I'm really watching this happening.
“This year we have to do better and we need to take action. We need to educate people. Education is key - I'm lucky that I have been to school and I've been in a school where we had over 50 different nationalities.
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“In football, what happened to me, to Mario [Balotelli], or to [Miralem] Pjanic - for me Italy is a beautiful country to live in. But Italy has such a potential to be a great league like it used to, but we have to work together to keep those ignorant people out of the stadium. It happened in Holland as well, when I watched a game in the second division.
“I spoke to the guy that it happened to where they stopped the games for one minute, I spoke to the guy and said, 'You did well to walk off the pitch and to celebrate in front of those ignorant people'. I think we need to take things into our own hands.
“I don't think we should leave it to the federations. Holland did a great job, they did a fantastic job with all of their players. Sometimes in other countries we, as players, have to take matters into our own hands.”
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Why do you think should be done about racism in football? Have your say in the comment section below.