A COUPLE of evenings ago I had to make one of those uncomfortable phone-calls that shouldn't really need to be made these days.

I spoke to Cyrille Regis. The reason was to ask him about a gesture of racism, towards Albion player Peter Odemwingie.

August, 2010 and I'm having to write about racism in football.

I won't give any respect to Lokomotiv Moscow by showing the photo of this vile gesture. But, in essence, it was a banner saying 'Thanks West Brom' - with a sketch of a banana on it. It refers to Odemwingie, who left Moscow last week.

And, yes, checks have been made directly to him - it is a racist reference, ruling out any potential confusion which might have related to an 'in-joke' or nickname we might be unaware of. There is no mistake. This is no Imre Varadi situation (he was nicknamed Imre Banana by Man City fans, who used to bring inflatable balloons to games during the late 1980s).

Suffice to say the banner in the Moscow photo is underneath a section of the Lokomotiv fans - with not a single non-white face among them.

Albion, as we know from 30 years ago, are the wrong club to be using racist material against.

A group of outraged Baggies fans have set up a Facebook page devoted in response to the banner, a gesture that Cyrille described as a 'cowardly' act.

In the meantime, the FIFA delegation who are busy being given the guided tour around England's stadia might wish to consider whether Russia really is a credible rival for the 2018 World Cup...