This week we saw the ugly face of the beautiful game as Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was banned for eight games for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra in their Premier League match on 15 October.
Coupled with the ongoing CPS case against England captain John Terry for the alleged racial remarks he made against QPR defender Anton Ferdinand, it has been a week of reminders that racism is still prominent in a sport that is fighting so hard to eradicate it.
The Suarez decision came late Tuesday evening and sparked response from around the world of football - none more so than from Liverpool FC themselves who issued a strongly worded statement of intent, which suggested that they will appeal the decision within the 14 day period they have.
As the Liverpool players warmed up for their game against Wigan Athletic on Wednesday night, they did so wearing t-shirts with Suarez face on the front and name and number on the back - in a statement showing "total support" for their team mate, who started the game.
But this begs me to ask the question: is the sport doing all it can to completely rid the sport of racist behaviour?
We have the well backed campaigns; Show Racism the Red Card and Kick Racism Out of Football, but when a player has been found guilty of making racial comments towards another player, is it the wisest thing for the club to do by making its players wear t-shirts in support of the player in question?
I can fully understand how they want to show backing to the player, which they did with their statement shortly after the decision but in my opinion that was enough from the club. As BBC Radio 5 pundit Jason Roberts said, ""I understand it is a show of solidarity but I'm not sure about the message itself. I wonder if all the players are happy with it. As a player I would be uncomfortable" - I found myself in agreement.
Back in November, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said "I believe there is no racism on the football pitch" - causing many managers, players and pundits to call for his resignation, which never came. Blatter later apologised for his remarks but it casts a massive shadow over the campaigning bodies that work day in day out to ensure that this type of behaviour does not take place in football. The last thing they would have expected would have been a complete show of naivety and stupidness from a representative of the sports governing body.
Football is up there with the world's leading sports and can be forceful in its message against racism, but yet it falls so flat on its face.
We never see monkey chants, banana throwing or racial remarks in sports such as Rugby, which is a team sport of equal passion and played in such a competitive nature.
Viv Anderson, the first black player to play international football for England said, in defence of Luis Suarez, "If somebody said something that, in their culture isn't as bad as we take it to be, you have to allow for that" and Brighton FC manager and fellow Uruguayan Gus Poyet said, "England needs to understand how the rest of the world lives. If we have that understanding, easy"
But if we take both of these comments to be true then why don't we find this with foreign players in other sports? It just does not exist in Rugby, Cricket, and Tennis etc.
Maybe the sports problems lie more in respect than in racism but if doesn't learn to control its players then a future of struggle and trouble lie ahead for the world of football.
Next on the agenda for the FA: England captain John Terry.