Porto officials deny that Mario Balotelli was racially abused by fans in Europa match Richards himself has been a targets for moronic taunts this season. The City defender was forced to quit the social networking site Twitter after being constantly insulted. But despite a season which has seen an increase in reported incidents of race-related abuse, Richards is encouraged by the speed in which the authorities have reacted, particularly in this country. The Football Association's zero-tolerance approach has been widely praised and there will be undoubtedly comparisons made with how Uefa deal with the official complaints made by City on behalf of Mario Balotelli on Thursday. Both the European governing body and Fifa have been previously accused of issuing lenient fines and failing to enforce adequate deterrents against further incidents. After City made the Uefa match delegate Panagiotis Chatzialexiou aware of their disgust in Europe, the process of investigating was put in motion. A Uefa spokesman said: "We are aware of Manchester City's claims and we are still waiting for the official report from the match delegate. The procedure then is if something like this is included in the report, then our disciplinary unit will have a look at it and decided if a case needs to be opened. For Richards, the fact clubs, players, supporters and match officials are now prepared to act so swiftly to highlight such incidents should be viewed in positive terms rather than perceived as a return to bad old days of rampant discrimination. There are always going to be people who have a certain opinion of people. I have to say in English football that I think the response has been outstanding," said Richards. There have been a couple of cases of late we're not really happy about. But since I've been playing, since I was 17, I've not really heard too much racism at all. Like his manager, Richards said he was not aware of the targeting of Balotelli during the Europa League game until after the final whistle. It's not what we want to hear. Unfortunately, it's part and parcel of football," said Richards. If people are going to do that, it's up to them. We will just get on with our job. It's not nice to hear and we can't do anything about it as players. It was just great for Mario that he played a big part in the first goal. It's nice to have him back after his suspension. He's become a key part of the team. A lot of people don't really talk about what he does on the field as much as they should. We know he's a massive player for us and he showed that. The City players have a few days off with no fixture this weekend, and manager Roberto Mancini did not return to Manchester with his side as he spends a few extra days in Italy.