Legendary French defender Lillian Thuram has called on people to back up their words with actions when it comes to wanting to combat racism.

Inter striker Romelu Lukaku was the latest high-profile footballer to be subjected to racist abuse and after several other incidents in Italy recently, Thuram has hit out at authorities for not taking such incidents seriously enough.

“The fans will never learn because all that happens is a lot of talk and no action. If nothing gets done, you give them the right to continue behaving in a certain way. Evidently, those in charge do not consider racist abuse to be that serious of a matter,” he remarked in an interview with Corriere dello Sport.

“When you talk about racism in Italian football, you have to understand this isn’t about the sport. There is racism in Italian, French, European and in general ‘white’ culture. Some whites have decided they are superior to blacks and can therefore do anything to them. Unfortunately, it has been going for centuries and it’s not easy to change such an ingrained culture.”

Thuram then called on the clubs to do more and make the most of the rules in place.

“Everyone says ‘We should do something’ and then don’t really do anything. That way, the racists think they’re right. Clubs must feel responsible for what happens within a closed environment like a football stadium. And when I say ‘responsible’, that does not mean ‘culpable’ – clubs must say, these people are in our stadium, so what can we do? If nobody feels responsible, nothing gets done. There are rules allowing them to stop games if there is racist behaviour, but they pretend not to hear it.”

Thuram then spoke on Romelu Lukaku’s statement which has seen him receieve a lot of support from around the world.

“I don’t know him personally but I have been told what he wrote on social media. He is right in saying we footballers must be united and take a stand to make football remain fun for everyone.

“It’s good that black players stand up for Lukaku and others, but the black players aren’t the ones with the problem. We need white people who find a solution to their problem. If they consider themselves more important and express that with monkey noises, it means they have an inferiority complex.”