UNITED goal hero Rio Ferdinand insists football's governing bodies must do more to stamp out racism from the game.

The United and England centre-back wants players and clubs who are found guilty of racist abuse to be "hung out to dry".

Blackburn striker Benni McCarthy last week claimed he was racially abused by Wisla Krakow's Serbian defender Nikola Mijailovic.

And Rio's brother, the West Ham defender Anton, recently complained of racist abuse during an Under-21 international against Germany.

Rio said: "England are doing a lot to quash that but in Europe people are light years behind and until the punishment becomes severe people will continue to do it and get away with it.

"Players need to be banned for a certain amount of games and massive fines - something that is going to make people sit up and think: `I had better not do that. My club is going to suffer, I am going to suffer. I will get embarrassed in public as well'.

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"I think people need to be hung out to dry. There needs to be nowhere for them to hide.

"Football is not going to get racism out of society but it goes a long way to setting the right tone towards kids coming through because football is an inspiration.

"If they see footballers doing the right thing then more than likely they will try to go along the same lines.

"The powers that be have a part to play."

Ferdinand has urged FIFA president Sepp Blatter to take a lead on the racism issue.

He added: "Has anyth ing happened since that England Under-21 game?

"If it was something silly like someone pulling a shirt over their heads to celebrate a goal I am sure Sepp would have been talking about it. Up until now I have not heard anything about racism."

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