Saturday evening's Veikkausliiga game between AC Oulu and FC Inter was briefly suspended during the second half after the referee heard a racist remark from the crowd.
Match official Mohammad Al-Emara — who has been voted the best referee in Finland's top flight on five occasions — said the comment was aimed at him.
After the match, Al-Emara called for spectators, fans and match organisers to take more responsibility when it comes to racism within Finnish football.
"I don't know how many times this season play has been suspended because of racist behaviour from the crowd," Al-Emara said.
"The referee is still the one who has to intervene, even though I have enough work to do on the pitch. My focus should be one hundred percent on the match," he added.
Al-Emara was also seen after the match having a heated discussion with representatives of AC Oulu, the home team and therefore the organisers of the game.
"Shouts like this need to be eradicated. However, there are a lot of people in the stands, and if the security person doesn't happen to be in that spot, it is challenging to immediately find that person," AC Oulu club chair Tomi Kaismo told Yle.
He added however that the person who shouted the racist comment at Al-Emara has since been identified and they will face consequences.
"We could ban them from coming to games, for example. This is not appropriate and we have absolutely zero tolerance for racism of any kind," Kaismo said.
Al-Emara told Yle he believes that there should be a dedicated person in the stands at a football game ready to intervene if there are any inappropriate or racist comments, so that the referee does not have to be the one to initiate the process.
"They say racists out of the stands, racism out of football. It means that if you behave in a racist way, then you should have no business being in the stands at a football game," Al-Emara said.
Edit note: Article updated on 11.8.2024 at 14:09 to add comments from AC Oulu club chair and additional comments from Mohammad Al-Emara.
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