Cisse dismisses 'stupid' racists

FRENCH striker Djibril Cisse has dismissed as "stupid people" the CSKA Sofia fans who subjected him to a torrent of racial abuse during Liverpool's Champions League victory in Bulgaria.

Cisse had to listen to offensive chants for much of the second half of Liverpool's 3-1 win over CSKA in the third qualifying round first leg. Cisse admitted he was hurt by the abuse, claiming he had never experienced such a situation in the past.

He said: "It's hurtful when it happens but there are a lot of stupid people sometimes at these matches. And as a player you can't do anything about it. You can say that UEFA should take stronger action when it happens but I am not sure what they can do."

Liverpool's black players suffered similar abuse in this same stadium in March 2004, but that time it was fans of Levski Sofia.

The Anfield club have also endured incidents against Boavista in Portugal, Valencia in Spain and Steaua Bucharest in Romania in recent years.

UEFA have been criticised for being lenient with such incidents in the past but the Bulgarian club already know they will be reported to the European governing body by their match delegate Trygve Borno. It is expected to be on the agenda of the next disciplinary meeting on August 18.

The Norwegian saw fit to approach the Liverpool officials to tell them he would be including the incidents in his match report.

CSKA now face the prospect of being fined or even having to play games behind closed doors in European competition.

With the Michael Shields case also overshadowing Liverpool's visit to Bulgaria, another high profile incident will only make the second leg a worrying prospect for the club.

Liverpool and UEFA officials are known to have been upset by a huge perimeter advertising board supporting Shields - a Reds fan imprisoned in Bulgaria for a crime he insists he did not commit - at Wednesday's match, commissioned by a local Liverpool radio station.

Cisse had scored Liverpool's first goal before the abuse started and he said: "This is the first time anything like this has happened to me. I think the only solution is to educate people so they understand that they should not be doing this. I am strong enough to deal with it, and I don't let it affect me. I am just sad that we have to talk about this issue rather than football."

But Cisse refused to blame CSKA, adding: "You really can't stop these people doing this. It is not CSKA's fault and I do not know what can be done. When it happens, I am sorry for football because no-one wants it. Normally I do not have this sort of problem."

The abuse suffered by Cisse came as the European champions all but secured their passage to the group stages of the Champions League for the fourth time in the last five seasons.

Only an unexpected reversal at Anfield in a fortnight will stop the Reds from marching - still without country protection in the draw - into a place among the elite of Europe which they feel is rightfully theirs.

They will instantly become number one seeds as holders when the group stage draw takes place in Monaco in a fortnight, a destination which seemed a long way away when they began their long summer trawling through the lower levels of European football in the second week in July.

That is no mean achievement for boss Benitez, who has been forced to juggle friendlies, training camps and more air miles than he would care to count over the past month.

But Liverpool stand on the brink of achieving their summer objective, angry that Cisse has been subjected to the sort of racial abuse which never seems far away from a European match.

Benitez said: "There is no place for this. The most important thing is that the UEFA man has said he will send in a report, he has done his job. But it is better not to talk too much about such things because all you do is to give more publicity to the situation.

"It will now go to UEFA and it is stupid to suggest that Djibril provoked the crowd, was scoring a goal provocation?"