Good news for all those who want to stamp racism out of football. The first person in the country has been charged for chanting "You're just a town full of Pakis".

It means that calling someone a "Paki" is now ruled a criminal offence by High Court judges.

Sean Ratcliffe was found guilty under the Football Offences Act after police caught him chanting. The 21-year-old was with Port Vale fans who taunted visiting Oldham supporters during a game in October last year with the chant: "You're just a town full of Pakis."

He was originally cleared of the charge at Stoke-on-Trent magistrates court after district judge Graham Richards said it was just the same as calling an Australian an Aussie. But, the Crown Prosecution Service appealed and counsel Edward Coke told the High Court yesterday the term "Paki" was racially insulting. He said:

"It was implicit that Oldham was inferior because of the nationality or ethnic origin of a number of its citizens.

"To find that the chanting contained no offensive language is plainly wrong."

He said terms such as Aussie, Kiwi or Brit were not offensive, but Frog or Kraut could be.

Now, Ratcliffe faces a fine of up to £1,000 after Lord Justice Auld said:

"The unpleasant context in which it is so often used has left it with a derogatory or insulting racialist connotation."

The 1991 shorter Oxford English dictionary defines the term Paki as slang which is racially offensive. The use of the word must be considered on a case-by-case basis, but Lord Auld had no doubt it was used in a "racially derogatory sense". He said it did not matter whether any Pakistanis heard the chant or not.

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