Serie A side Lazio has already been punished four times in the 2012-13 season due to racist offenses by its fans in European matches.
(CNN) -- Accused of being too soft on racism in the past, European football's governing body UEFA has vowed to crack down hard on offenders -- with 10-match bans for players and officials found guilty.
This year both UEFA and world governing body FIFA have come under pressure following AC Milan forward Kevin-Prince Boateng's decision to walk off the field in a match against Italian fourth tier side Pro Patria in January after suffering racist abuse from the crowd.
"It's still a scourge on the game," UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino told the Soccerex event, where leading football officials are meeting, in Manchester, England. "We have to have sanctions.
"What we are proposing is that if a player or official is found guilty then they will be suspended for 10 matches."
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With several racist incidents making headlines in the past calendar year, UEFA is also prepared to punish supporters' racist behavior by closing sections of football grounds -- or, if need be, all of the stadium -- in cases of persistent fan abuse.
"If supporters are found guilty then there will be a partial closure of the stadium," added Infantino.
"This means the section where the offense took place will be closed. If there is a second offense by the club's supporters there will be full closure with a minimum $65,400 fine."
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However, Infantino said UEFA would not be taking any action against Malaga despite the furious reaction of club owner and the Spanish club's coach in the wake of their team's European Champions League defeat in Germany on Tuesday.
Sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani, angered by two late goals his team conceded in the 3-2 defeat by Borussia Dortmund -- one of which appeared to be offside -- said on Twitter that the club's quarterfinal exit was "injustice and racism."
Coach Manuel Pellegrini added: "The third goal was an offside goal and there were all kinds of elbows and punches."
But Infantino said: "UEFA is not taking any action against any club from that point of view. I can understand that when you lose a match in the 93rd minute, emotions come up and you say things you don't really think."
UEFA will vote on its new racism proposals in London in May and if they are passed, the ruling could apply to all UEFA competitions from as early as July.
Europe's governing body has also asked its member associations to apply this new anti-racist strategy to their own domestic competitions, with the plans going to a vote of the UEFA congress in May.
Football's soul
Turning to the "cancer" of match-fixing, as Infantino put it, UEFA's general secretary characterized the problem as one that affected mainly "lower division" football despite concerns it is taking place in top matches.
In February Rob Wainwright, director of European law enforcement agency Europol, revealed the crime fighting organization believed the highest levels of the game were no longer safe from match-fixing.
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A total of 380 games in Europe -- including World Cup and European Championship qualifiers -- were deemed suspicious by Europol, with 425 match and club officials and criminals involved from 15 different countries.
"We knew about these (Europol) cases before," said Infantino. "We had already taken sanctions against these cases before, our associations had already taken sanctions and banned players and officials.
"We are monitoring 32,000 matches across 365 days a year every year."
"Looking at the figures, we can see that some 0.7 % of matches, mainly in lower divisions, present some irregularities, not necessarily match-fixing.
"The result of matches is the soul of football, and we cannot allow anyone to attack the soul of football."
But Infantino acknowledged that UEFA could not tackle the problem match-fixing on its own and that a more co-ordinated approach was needed.
"We need the help of governments and law-enforcement agencies, because there is no way we can start looking into bank accounts or tapping phones. We need the authorities to help us.
"What is behind match-fixing is not to fix the match, why would you fix a match in the third division in Switzerland?
"It's because there is organized crime behind this, and organized crime is financing drugs and prostitution.
"That is why the authorities have to intervene and have to help us."
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"I don't care what game it is -- a friendly, Italian league or Champions League match -- I would walk off again," the Germany-born Kevin-Prince Boateng, who has represented Ghana, told CNN in an exclusive interview in January after he walked off in protest at racist abuse he was subjected to in a friendly match.
At the end of January, Boateng had a new teammate after AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi sanctioned a $30 million deal to sign striker Mario Balotelli from Manchester City. Berlusconi had previously branded Balotelli a "rotten apple."
La Stampa newspaper estimates that the signing of "Super Mario" could be worth 400,000 votes in Berlusconi's bid for re-election in Italy. The ballot takes place on February 24 and 25.
Before moving to England, the Italy-born Balotelli played for AC Milan's rivals Inter Milan, and during one Serie A match against Juventus the Turin club's fans once shouted: "There are no black Italians."
Soon after Balotelli returned to Italy, Inter Milan were fined $20,000 after racist chants from their fans about the AC Milan's striker at a match against Chievo. Inter play AC in the Milan derby on February 24.
"Berlusconi is an opportunist, who will say anything to win short-term support," Italian historian John Foot -- the author of the authoritative book on Italian football "Calcio" -- told CNN, in reference to the AC Milan owner's support for Boateng after the player walked off the pitch. "His comments are hypocritical at best, especially given his alliance with anti-immigrant and far-right parties, and his comments on Barack Obama (he called him 'sun-tanned')," added Foot. Berlusconi is pictured in the center, wearing a scarf.
Soon after Balotelli returned to Serie A, Berlusconi's brother Paolo -- during a political rally -- invited the public to an upcoming AC Milan match and was caught on camera -- the video was featured on the website of Italian newspaper La Repubblica -- saying: "OK, we are all off to see the family's little black boy." Paolo is pictured here, wearing glasses.
"I don't think you can run away, because then the team should have to forfeit the match," FIFA president Sepp Blatter told Abu Dhabi's The National newspaper. "This issue is a very touchy subject, but I repeat there is zero tolerance of racism in the stadium, we have to go against that. The only solution is to be very harsh with the sanctions (against racism) -- and the sanctions must be a deduction of points or something similar."
Two days after Boateng's walkoff, some sections of Lazio's crowd at Rome's Olympic Stadium were heard making monkey noises at Cagliari's Colombian striker Victor Ibarbo. However, the majority of the home crowd jeered and whistled to drown out the racists.
In 2010, Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o suffered racist abuse from Cagliari fans when playing for Inter Milan in a Serie A game. The Sardinian club was subsequently heavily fined.
In 2005 the Italian authorities banned Paolo di Canio -- then playing for Lazio -- and fined him almost $11,000 for his use of a straight-arm salute. "The sports court decided that it was an act of racism," the head of Italy's Observatory on Racism and Anti-racism in Football, Mauro Valeri, told CNN. "The ordinary court, however, did not intervene. For me it's racism, for the Ministry of the Interior, no." Di Canio is now manager of English club Swindon Town.
While English football embarked on a program of stadium reconstruction after the 1980s disasters at Bradford, Heysel (pictured) and Hillsborough, Italian football has been arguably hampered by a lack of stadium redevelopment.
Of Serie A's big clubs, only Juventus has built a new stadium in recent years.
The Italian Ministry of the Interior has introduced an identity document -- "tessera del tifoso" -- for supporters to counteract hooliganism. In order to buy match tickets, fans must present their document, with the system designed to ensure away fans can't buy "home" tickets for games.
"The Football Italian Federation, FIFA and UEFA must empower fan-based initiatives that are capable of creating a culture of self-regulation," 
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