Rangers managing director Stewart Robertson said the alleged racist abuse of Glen Kamara may be a tipping point for football authorities to impose stronger sanctions.
Police Scotland are investigating allegations of racist abuse by Slavia Prague’s Ondrej Kudela aimed at Kamara during their Europa League match at Ibrox on March 18.
Slavia Prague have denied the claims and say they will “fully cooperate” with the police and UEFA.
Robertson said Rangers were grateful for the support received from their Premiership rivals, with Celtic captain Scott Brown coming over to embrace Kamara and shake his hand before their derby on March 21.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Robertson said: “You could tell by the reaction of Glen and Bongani Zungu that something horrific had been said.
“I’m in absolutely no doubt what happened having seen video recordings.
“You see the gestures that have been made by other clubs – Dundee United, Motherwell, Scott Brown, and the Scottish national team. That support has been great to see.
“You’d rather it had never happened in the first place and we’re not talking about it today, but hopefully it galvanises. You mention taking a knee and how that’s changed because people are taking a stand. They have to be more than gestures.
“It’s great these gestures are happening and raising the profile but there’s a risk that if they keep happening, you don’t really notice them after a while. Something else needs to be done to keep the subject matter in people’s minds and consciousness.
“After the incident with Glen, we had Rio and Anton Ferdinand tweeting about it and getting it out to really wide audiences. The abuse Kemar Roofe got was discussed in a debate at Westminster about social media.
“If there’s any good to come from this, and it’s hard to see given the horrific nature of what happened, it might be that people think twice before they do something like this again.”
In light of the Kamara incident, the Scottish Football Association have organised a summit meeting with Premiership clubs on Wednesday to discuss diversity and inclusion in the game.
Rangers will have five representatives present including captain James Tavernier and the club’s supporter liaison officer.
“It’s great they have actually called all the clubs together and hopefully it becomes more than just a talking shop,” said Robertson.
“Hopefully there are some real outcomes and actions from it that we will see being applied, and hopefully see beginning to make a difference in terms of diversity and inclusion within the game.
1:10
Czech Republic and West Ham defender Vladimir Coufal says he ‘stands by’ international team-mate Ondrej Kudela after he was accused of racially abusing Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara
“I know a lot of clubs do a lot of good work in the areas. It’s probably not the clubs that have got the issue. We’ve got our own ‘Everyone Anyone’ campaign which has been really successful and worked really well for us in getting messages across. But we need to look at how we take it broader.
“There has been a lot of commentary over the past few weeks on the social media companies and how government can interact with that. You’d rather the government didn’t have to enforce but that’s where we’re going to get to in terms of getting the companies to take more care of what individuals put on their social media feeds.
“That’s one of the key areas where so much of this abuse happens. You wouldn’t invite these guys into your house to abuse you in the way that they do when they come onto your social media accounts.
“I would like to think the summit will see some real actions. Hopefully it’s the first meeting of many.”
2:21
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