Forgiven: Stuart Pearce offered Paul Ince a swift apology back in 1994

In Pearce’s case, Gordon Taylor, the head of the Professional Footballers’ Association, was instantly involved as mediator.

Pearce recognised he was wrong and apologised. Ince, an England team-mate on 13 occasions after the event took place, accepted.

Nobody is arguing that racism is cosily settled with a handshake, but a swift confession, apology and sincere attempt at reconciliation goes a long way.

The worry being that the more strident the zero tolerance approach has become, the worse the situation appears to get.
There have always been racists lurking on Twitter - and its administrators should have done more to outlaw them a long time ago - but the recent controversies seem to be bringing extremists out in greater number, judging by the amount of complaints and account closures from black players. Micah Richards is the latest to withdraw.

This is not right. There is no point having an admirable, progressive policy if it achieves the opposite of what is intended.

Either football’s message on racism isn’t getting across, or it has become horribly skewed if white folk think they are the ones being persecuted, and the worst in their ranks are lashing out.

Yet without a proper avenue for rehabilitation, this false sense of injustice will spread. We make racism the only taboo at our peril.

The exchange between Suarez and Evra is believed to have started with a sexist remark about a member of Suarez’s family, although little was made of it at the time or subsequently.

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