FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura on Thursday said that the best way for soccer players to protest racist fans is to walk off the field.

"I think to step out of the field, from players, would be a very strong message," Samoura told CNN.

"But I'm not in their shoes, they're doing it to earn their living. But I think one day it will happen."

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Samoura, who is from Senegal, became the first woman, and the first non-European, to hold an executive post at FIFA in 2016.

Her comments come amid a string of high-profile cases of fans racially abusing players.

In March, England's national team was subjected to racist abuse during a Euro 2020 qualifying match in Montenegro and last month Juventus' teenage striker Moise Kean was taunted with monkey chants by opposition fans.

"Every single incident now is taking a bigger amplitude, which is normal," Samoura said.

"There are idiots in life. There are people who think that they want a world where everybody is the same and I think this is totally wrong."

FIFA launched a "three-step procedure" in 2017 which gives referees permission to stop, suspend or abandon games in response to racist chanting.