Villas-Boas backs Rose and urges harder UEFA stance over racism after Serbia-England U-21 clash

Tottenham head coach Andre Villas-Boas has offered his full support to Danny Rose after the defender was allegedly subjected to racial abuse while on England Under-21 international duty in Serbia.

 Rose, who is currently on loan at Sunderland, was part of the youthful Three Lions side that qualified for the 2013 U-21 European championship in the 1-0 playoff second-leg victory on Tuesday at the Mladost stadium in Krusevac, and he reported that monkey chants were aimed in his direction during the match.

 The 22-year-old also claimed that stones were thrown at him during the game, and his club boss has called on football’s authorities to take a stronger stance over racial abuse.

 “Obviously it is extremely difficult for Danny and he was disappointed by what happened, the situation he had to live with and the atmosphere that he had to be confronted with,” Villas-Boas told London 24. “I told Danny, and I tell you now, that I support him completely in this situation. He felt abused, and this is obviously a serious matter which at the moment is in the hands of the FA in a certain way.

 “The governing bodies have made quite a strong stance in England, which is fully appreciated, but hopefully UEFA can give us a little bit more of an indication about what they are expecting to do. We’ve spoken so much about this kind of situation that it’s almost like we haven’t put a brake into these events that we have to deal with on a weekly basis, which is very sad."

Soccer has been rocked by several high-profile cases of racism, including the incident between Chelsea defender John Terry and QPR’s Anton Ferdinand, which happened when Villas-Boas was in charge at Stamford Bridge.