Piara Powar believes that Liverpool should have been more proactive over the latest racism issue to affect the club.
English club should be more active, he insists
The head of European football's anti-racism group Piara Powar believes that Liverpool should have been more proactive over the latest racism issue to affect the club.
On Friday both Liverpool and Merseyside Police launched investigations after Oldham Athletic's 20-year-old defender Tom Adeyemi was allegedly abused by someone in the Kop during the Reds' 5-1 FA Cup third round victory at Anfield.
The suggestion - yet to be confirmed by either club or the police - is the comments were of a racial nature.
A police spokesman did, however, confirm on Friday that "no one has been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated behaviour".
It comes come as Liverpool have just finished dealing with the fall-out from Luis Suarez's eight-match ban for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra.
Both clubs are reluctant to comment until the police have moved the investigation forward but Powar, executive director of European football's anti-discrimination body FARE, believes that Liverpool should be speaking out.
Undo the damage
"The obvious thing for LFC today must be to come out as a club - owner, manager, captain - and start to undo some of the damage, including addressing their fans," he wrote on Twitter.
"Go onto the LFC website and there is not a single expression of regret about what happened last night.
"Are LFC fans going to do this at every game, support the mistakes made by their own man by abusing others? 25% of PL players are black.
"That's a lot of players to abuse. Top clubs have unprecedented influence and power over millions of people.
"They should exercise that power responsibly, if they don't it's time for the authorities to step in.
"Those scenes last night, it was clear, this is not just an issue for football but our society as a whole.
"The LFC brand is being tarnished, but so is British football. Where are football's leaders on this issue today?"
