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The Football Association of Ireland have confirmed that a "racist incident" towards one of the Republic of Ireland Under-17 players has been reported to UEFA

It allegedly occurred during the second-half of the team's Elite Phase qualification match against Poland.

The FAI released a statement on the matter saying: "The comment was reported to the match officials at the time and the players immediately made Republic of Ireland U17 Head Coach Colin O'Brien aware of the incident. Colin then reported the remark to the match officials two more times during the match."

The statement also claimed the FAI reported the comment twice during the match and a further report was made on the conclusion of the game.

"FAI officials made a further report to the UEFA delegate and the delegate has since confirmed the incident will be submitted in the final report to UEFA," the statement from the FAI website added.

The association also outlined that support has been offered to the player affected and emphasised its stance on racism in football.

They continued: "The association has offered its full and unequivocal support to the player who was subjected to racism and to his team-mates.

"The FAI does not tolerate any form of racism towards any of our players or staff and we expect UEFA to investigate fully and take the appropriate action. Racism has no place in the game at any level."

Under-17 head coach Colin O'Brien said he fully supports the escalation of the incident: "Racism has no place in the game at any level and no-one should be subjected to any form of abuse. It has no place in society and as a staff and a team, we've offered our full support to our player.

"I'm fully supportive of the Association escalating the incident up to UEFA and we