GIVEN their utterly inadequate response to the racist chanting that blighted England's recent friendly in Spain, nobody should be surprised by the spineless nature of the Spanish FA's latest attempts to combat racism in the country's football grounds.

But, even by their own shockingly indulgent standards, yesterday's decision to fine Atletico Madrid £420 for the incessant abuse aimed at Real Madrid full-back Roberto Carlos on Sunday marks a new low in the organisation's attempts to address the problem.

No, you didn't read that wrongly. The figure really was £420 - despite an 83rd-minute appeal by referee Perez Burrull asking Atletico to put out an announcement on the stadium's PA asking the fans to stop.

Sadly, and perhaps inevitably, the appeal had the opposite effect, with Real's black players having to run a gauntlet of sustained abuse in the final ten minutes of the game. Atletico must have feared the worst when the Spanish FA immediately released a statement condemning the racist chants.

"We wish to repeat our condemnation of this kind of behaviour and repeat our promise to act with maximum firmness to eradicate any display of racism or xenophobia in Spanish football," the statement read.

That promise could have been fulfilled in a number of ways. Atletico could have been fined points or forced to play a specified number of home games behind closed doors as a punishment for the action of their fans.

Instead, they have been fined a sum of money that is an absolute irrelevance to a top-flight football club in any of Europe's leading nations.

To put the figure into perspective, you or I could be fined £420 for driving a car without a valid test certificate. Not to be advised, but hardly comparable to thousands of fans directing racially-motivated insults at one unfortunate footballer.

When Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink played for Atletico prior to joining Chelsea, £420 would have paid his wages for an hour and ten minutes.

Unsurprisingly, anti-racist groups throughout Europe have condemned the Spanish FA's feeble response.

But UEFA - the only organisation that could do anything about it - have refused to become involved.

Endless debates over goalline technology seem to have taken precedence over the cancerous growth of racism within of one of UEFA's biggest members.

"The incident was the responsibility of the Spanish football authorities," said UEFA communications director William Gaillard. "UEFA views their decision as a positive outcome, in line with our own policy on such matters.

"The fine was relatively small, but we are the association of associations and we do not interfere with the internal business of any country."

So, to paraphrase, 'Atletico have got off scot-free - but that's fine by us'.

In reality, Atletico will probably be feeling that they have been hard done by.

Their Spanish rivals, Albacete, were fined the same amount before Christmas when Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o was racially abused in the Carlos Belmonte Stadium.

That fine was reduced to £210 on appeal.

Staggering but, given the events of the past two months, sadly predictable.