Football
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Sepp Blatter vows to have tougher racism punishments for clubs

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has called for stricter punishments for racist abuse, insisting relegation and suspension will work as deterrents to rid football of the issue.

The 79-year-old is currently running to be elected for a fifth term in office and was speaking about the need to have firmer reprimands for clubs at the launch of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) congress in Egypt.

As well as talking about the level of investment in football on the continent, Blatter said the South Africa World Cup of 2010 has set a benchmark for future tournaments and spoke on how he wants to see any racist behaviour tackled in the future.

"We have to punish not only through fines and stadium closures but we have to use our rules to suspend teams, to take away their points or even to relegate them if racism continues," he said.

The three men challenging Blatter for his position, Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein, Luis Figo and Michael van Praag will have felt their campaigns take a hit as CAF president Issa Hayatou told the incumbent president he should expect the support of every African nation at next month's election.

CAF is the largest of the six continental confederations and has 54 of the 209 FIFA member countries who are able to vote in the election on May 29. Their support for Blatter has long been expected.

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