Unfortunately it isn't a one off either. I go to see Malaga every week and quite often if a black player upsets the home crowd it quite often triggers off a chorus of racist abuse and yes it is rascist, similar to the crap we heard last night.

Similarly I am amazed at seeing Nazi salutes and chants of Seig Heil, not only by the Ultras of Malaga but I’ve seen it at other grounds in Spain too. If that was in England the supporters concerned would be thrown out and probably arrested and barred too.

Similarly I am amazed at seeing Nazi salutes and chants of Seig Heil, not only by the Ultras of Malaga but I’ve seen it at other grounds in Spain too. If that was in England the supporters concerned would be thrown out and probably arrested and barred too

In the UK, any fans caught engaging in that kind of behaviour are booted out and banned. They are caught because either another fan might have reported them to stewards or they are caught after the fact on CCTV.

Can somebody please explain why the Spanish people find that it is acceptable to do that.

Madrid's mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon on Wednesday presented the official dossier for the city's bid for the 2012 Olympics by praising what Madrid and Spain have to offer.

"Let us face the responsibility. As a city and a country we are communicative, open, transparent and we are in a position to use those virtues to transmit this same dream that in Madrid feeds a true passion for sport, for the meeting of people and for peaceful co-existence," said Ruiz-Gallardon.

Less that 12 hours later, black players in the England football team were subjected to a barrage of vile racist abuse, which ranged from monkey chants to the song "Que no bote negro es!" which can be translated as "whoever doesn't jump up and down is a black."

Next to that, the night's other song of choice from the home fans, "Gibraltar Espanyol", seemed insignificant.

The chanting was not done by a small but vocal minority. Several thousand fans in Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu stadium joined in with gusto.

Neither was it done by people who could use a lack of education as an excuse. The vast majority of the crowd were young, upper middle class and likely to be well schooled.

So just where does Spanish sport fit between Gallardon's message of welcome and the chanting masses?

The answer is somewhere in between, although the situation could be improved if the problem was acknowledged.

"Racist chants? This doesn't happen in La Liga or in Spain," said the Spanish FA's press officer Fernando Garrido during Spain coach Luis Aragones' post-match press conference.

Mr Garrido may be a nice man, but in this case he has got his facts sadly wrong.

Only last Thursday, Atletico Madrid midfielder Kiki Musampa was subjected to monkey chants every time he touched the ball during his side's Copa del Rey match in Tarragona.

Maybe it's an exaggeration to say that happens every week in every ground in Spain, but it happens on a regular basis.

You can hear racist abuse quite often in grounds such as Getafe's Colosium Alfonso Perez and Atletico Madrid's Vicente Calderon as well as others.

Some people would prefer to believe the problem does not exist.

"It's one thing to say we have a national coach who lets his mouth run away with him now and then, but something else to see things that are not there," said Marca columnist Miguel Angel Mendez, who insisted accusations of racist chanting during the Spain-England Under-21 game were "a lie."

Indeed, many in the Spanish press believing their English counterparts came over looking for a fight and aiming to cause trouble.

They simply do not understand that Aragones' comments about Thierry Henry last month were offensive and incidents of casual racism are all too common.

Only last week Marca compared Spain's most famous basketball player - Pau Gasol - with Shaquille O'Neal.

"All he has to do is paint himself black and inject silicone into his lips," they joked under a cartoon of Gasol.

Atletico Madrid's recently deceased president Jesus Gil (a man who gave Aragones a job on two different occasions) once commented "I hope they kill the black," after the crowd turned on Atletico's Colombian striker 'Tren' Valencia.

Even former Real Madrid coach Vicente del Bosque, a man considered to be warm-hearted and of a left-wing leaning, showed the lack of progress Spain has made in terms of understanding racial issues.

Four years ago when asked if the signing of black central midfielders Claude Makelele and Flavio Conceicao would be a problem for him, he replied, "The only problem I will have is telling them apart."