FRENCH football club Bastia have been handed a one-point deduction after their second-tier game was disrupted when a fan racially abused an assistant referee.

The French league said late on Wednesday that its disciplinary panel judged the case based on the racial abuse of the match official, plus fans lighting fireworks and throwing one on the field.

Points deductions in such cases have been requested for more than a decade by anti-discrimination groups working in football.

Play was stopped for several minutes during Bastia’s game in December against Quevilly-Rouen Metropole.

The game ended 0-0 and the sanction effectively took away the point Bastia players earned on the field. The team remains 13th in 20-team Ligue 2.

The club from the Mediterranean island of Corsica previously had issues with racist incidents involving fans.

Italian forward Mario Balotelli, who is Black and often a target of abuse during his career, was racially abused playing for Nice at Bastia in the 2016-17 season. Bastia later banned a fan who admitted making monkey noises.