Here is what Arsène Wenger had to say, in the press conference after the game, when asked why he had waited on the pitch to speak to the referee Damir Skomina following Arsenal's 3-0 defeat of Milan at the Emirates last month, the one that wasn't quite enough to repair the damage of the 4-0 defeat in the first leg at San Siro.

"I was not happy with the referee because he gave them many free-kicks in the centre of the park," the Arsenal manager said. "Every time a player went down it was a free-kick to them. The [Milan] players sensed that very quickly on the pitch and used it well."

And here is what the manager of Porto, Vítor Pereira, had to say about Mario Balotelli being subjected to racial abuse, ie monkey noises so loud they were picked up by viewers watching on television, when substituted late in the game Manchester City won 2-1 at the Estádio do Dragão in February. "I think there might have been a misunderstanding," Pereira and other club spokesmen insisted. "The crowd were chanting Hulk, Hulk, Hulk."

Hard to know why they would do that in the 78th minute of a game when the Porto striker had just been switched from the centre of the attack to the wing, but that is not the point at issue. The point at issue is that Wenger has just been handed a €40,000 (£33,100) fine for his conduct regarding Mr Skomina, and ordered to serve a three-match touchline ban in Europe. Whereas Porto, for what appears a much graver offence even without the club excuses that insulted everyone's intelligence, got away with a trifling €20,000 fine.

There's something not quite right there, and it may not be the usual Uefa weakness at dealing effectively with offensively racist attitudes. Both Uefa and Fifa are fairly hopeless at even recognising the seriousness of racism in football let alone dealing with it, as we know from a series of ineffective wrist slaps down the years. In England, of course, we can sort this type of thing out in no time. That's why we have just lost our national team captain and national team coach because of an alleged remark that took place between two players last October and which will take the best part of a year to come to court. But that is not the point at issue either. Anti-racism campaigners are arguing among themselves about whether the Porto fine is sufficient. The Kick It Out campaign considers the Uefa punishment too lenient and complains it does not send out a strong enough message, which is par for the course. Whereas Piara Powar of Football Against Racism in Europe more or less welcomed Uefa's action, arguing that it sent a clear warning, was a sufficient amount for a first offence and that the club would be told further transgressions would be dealt with more severely.

While noting that it may be unduly lenient in itself to allow that this actually was a first offence at Porto – unless a similar incident involving William Gallas and Didier Drogba in 2004 is too long ago to count – it seems possible to embrace both these responses. While no one wishes to see matches played in closed stadiums, no one would like these unpleasant situations to go unchecked or unnoticed either, and the football authorities must steer a course between the two extremes, taking into account the quite noticeable differences in attitudes towards racial integration even in countries within Europe. At least Uefa is doing something and not pretending the problem does not exist, and that is a start. A fine of £16,700 is not exactly chicken feed, it just looks puny when set against Wenger being asked to cough up double that amount.

Here is the anomaly. While it may appear to be the case that Uefa considers racial abuse less of a crime than questioning a referee's ability, it is possible to look at the situation the opposite way round and wonder why it is that such a high tariff is set for remarks made to or about Champions League officials. How come Wenger came to be fined £33,400, in other words, when all he did was criticise the referee's performance? Had he been told to stump up £5,000, or just asked to watch the next match from the stands, it would have been perfectly commensurate with the offence and made the Porto fine look relatively severe. It could be argued that Wenger has previous in this area, though it could also be argued that he has reason to be unhappy with some of the referees that Uefa has sent along. It would have taken the patience of a saint, for example, to remain calm and dispassionate after what happened to Robin van Persie against Barcelona last season.

As we are not only approaching the third anniversary of the absolute nadir of Champions League refereeing – the unforgettable performance by Tom Henning Ovrebo in Chelsea's doomed attempt to overcome Barcelona at the semi-final stage at Stamford Bridge – but there is also the possibility of the same teams meeting at the same stage, perhaps Uefa should bring in everyone's favourite Norwegian official for old times' sake. Ovrebo's career did not exactly take off after the Chelsea debacle: he supervised another Champions League miscarriage of justice with Bayern Munich and Fiorentina two years ago, and after complaints in qualification games for the 2010 World Cup did not make the cut for the finals in South Africa. So he quit international football and now just referees in Norway, which is more or less what he was doing when he first came to prominence for all the wrong reasons.

Chelsea were fined £85,000 for improper conduct for their wholly understandable disappointment and frustration at the end of that memorable match, when Uefa should really have been apologising for its own bungling and paying the club a much larger sum in compensation. Uefa gets things wrong, referees get things wrong, but it is only ever clubs and players who are fined or banned.

The Champions League this season is building to what seems certain to be a memorable climax, there are some great sides in it and Uefa is to be congratulated on improving an already magnificent spectacle year on year, though one consequence of the greater number of games now played in the tournament is that not every top match gets a top referee. Whereas managers used to be full of praise for a higher standard of referees in Europe, now they wonder where some of them come from. Uefa, to judge by the size of the fines it imposes for even gentle criticism of referees, seem to be aware of this problem. But if Wenger so much as makes a peep next season he will probably cop for a six-figure sum, which is silly.

There are worse things going on in football than managers complaining about refereeing decisions. Disgruntled managers will always want to do that, it is part of the game, but Uefa does not want to know. One's sympathies lay entirely with Wenger when he said recently that referees had become the new untouchables, especially in Europe. "I believe that they have transformed Uefa competition referees to be untouchable icons," he said. "Now you cannot even have a word."