IF there is one thing more abhorrent than racism, it is UEFA's lily-livered stance against European football's greatest evil.

The Slovakian Football Association will be fined following the disgusting chants aimed by their Neanderthal supporters at Emile Heskey and Ashley Cole, we can be sure of that.

But we can be just as certain the amount involved will be so derisory that one could be forgiven for thinking UEFA secretly condoned the fans' actions.

They don't, of course, but what good will docking the Slovakian FA a few thousand pounds do?

Sorry, but if UEFA keep fining national associations and clubs peanuts, then black players will continue to be targeted by the less enlightened members of Europe's football-supporting public.

Take the example of PSV Eindhoven last month. Their fans subjected Thierry Henry and other Arsenal players to disgraceful racist abuse. It was not the first time their supporters had been guilty of the crime. And what did UEFA do? Fine the club less than £13,000.

That'll teach them, won't it? Set against the millions that PSV will earn from the Champions League this season, such a figure is like taking a pint of water from a full swimming pool.

Players from Liverpool, Fulham, Blackburn Rovers and Ipswich Town, as well as Arsenal, have been the victims of racist abuse while on Champions League or UEFA Cup duty this season.

And now Heskey and Cole, who were targeted when wearing club colours in Valencia and Eindhoven respectively, have suffered while representing their country.

What makes UEFA's stance all the more ridiculous is the punitive punishments meted out to English clubs and the FA when fans from this country step out of line.

Clearly, hooliganism also ought not to be tolerated, yet what are the chances that the heavy-handed retaliation of Slovakian police against the (largely innocent) England supporters will be followed by a UEFA fine for the FA? Quite high, one fears.

The only action that will stamp out racism, as FA vice-chairman David Dein pointed out last week, is closing grounds.

At the moment, the only guarantee that players will not suffer racist taunts in some countries is if matches are played in empty stadia.

So, why don't UEFA do that? The answer to that is simple: money. And until European football's pursuit of cash - to the detriment of the greater good of the game - ends, racism will be allowed to flourish.

The racists are beneath contempt.

But so are the UEFA bosses who refuse to take proper steps to root them out.