A prominent Nigerian-British sports journalist has said that "drastic" measures are needed to stop racism in football.

Talking to the BBC's new Focus on Africa podcast, Osasu Obayiuwana, who was also a member of Fifa's anti-racism task force, said it was an endless cycle.

“It's the same old thing. Something happens. Everyone says: 'This is so terrible, we have to do something about it.' And after a while, it dies down and it's going to happen again. And it will happen again until some drastic measures are taken to make it so uncomfortable for clubs and federations to tolerate."

His comments come after seven people were punished for acts of racism towards Real Madrid's Brazil forward Vinicius Jr, including four men who were fined $64,000 (£51,700).

While serving on the task force, Obayiuwana advocated stronger measures to combat racism.

However, the task force was disbanded after just three years.

“As a task force, we were advisory, we didn't have enforcement powers. So all we could do was to discuss the issues and make recommendations," Obayiuwana said.

"But in the three years that we were together, we only had about three meetings, and I made it clear to people that that was grossly inadequate for a problem that is endemic and doing so much damage to the image of football."

On FIFA's website, it says it is "resolutely against racism" and has "strengthened" its disciplinary rules.

According to Obayiuwana, Spain and Italy are the major flashpoints of racism in European football.

“These are very powerful countries within the football system. And I think that if Fifa has to start taking direct action against them on these issues, there might be political repercussions."

Last month Spain's La Liga requested more power to punish incidents of racism.

"We are convinced that if we had those powers, within months we would get rid of this problem," the league's president Javier Tebas told the BBC.

Under Spanish law, La Liga can identify and report racist cases, but not impose sanctions.