Thursday 13 December 2018 15:45, UK
Burnley winger Aaron Lennon says something must be done to "stamp out" abuse following the alleged racism directed towards Raheem Sterling at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea have banned four supporters while investigations continue into alleged racist abuse shouted at Sterling during last Saturday's match against Manchester City.
Colin Wing, from Beckenham, who was caught on camera shouting at Sterling when he retrieved the ball from behind the goalline, admitted his behaviour was "completely out of order" but claimed he directed the word 'Manc' and not 'black' at Sterling.
Lennon says while football has come a long way as a whole, more needs to be done to "come down harder" on any abuse.
"There's always going to be a small group, a minority of fans who act stupidly and come out with crazy things but in this day and age, I can't believe it's still going on," said Lennon.
"Something has to be done for it to be stopped and hopefully it will get sorted in the near future."
Asked what should be done to stop it, Lennon replied: "It's not for me to decide, I think they need to come down harder on things like this because there's no need for it in the game, there's no need for it anywhere to be honest.
"Football has come a long way, and it just needs to be stamped out."
He added: "It's never nice in any walk of life to see this, especially in football because like I said it has come such a long way. But it's a small minority of people, you have to think football as a whole has improved a lot, but there's still a lot to be done."
