Exhibition games between national teams have long been a part – an often exciting part – of the soccer calendar. They may not be for much longer.

Events during the past week raised some serious doubts about the value of such games. They have traditionally been known as “friendly” games – the word suggests a pleasant occasion, full of bonhomie and an opportunity to play some lively, adventurous soccer.

What we got last week was a total of eight goals in seven European friendlies. Three of them finished 0-0, two of them 1-0. So much for lively soccer.

As for the “friendly” part, that suffered a severe setback last Wednesday at one of soccer’s legendary stadiums, the Bernabeu in Madrid. There, Spain took on England and duly outclassed them; the 1-0 score line did not do justice to Spain’s superiority. But by the time the game was over, the soccer had become almost irrelevant.

It was the behavior of the Spanish fans that dominated the following day’s headlines. England’s black players, Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips, were subjected to relentless abuse. Whenever they played the ball, a chorus of guttural “monkey chants” was heard from large sections of the crowd.

The racism reached an almost unbearable level, and the English players later revealed that they had considered walking off the field. Things were not helped when, in the postgame press conference, the Spanish soccer association’s press chief, Fernando Garrido, deflected criticism by accusing the English press of orchestrating a campaign against Luis Aragones, the coach of Spain.

Aragones has been heavily targeted by the English press since, a month ago, he used the words negro de mierda (black turd) during a Spanish training session. The assumption – never denied by Aragones – was that the phrase referred to the black French striker Thierry Henry.

Aragones claimed that it was merely his way of motivating Jose Antonio Reyes, who plays alongside Henry at the English club Arsenal. No apology was offered. Instead, Aragones counterattacked by accusing the English of hypocrisy: Who were they to complain about racism, given their behavior in their former colonies?

A surefire cue for the politicians to enter the fray. English Sports Minister Richard Caborn promptly expressed his outrage, and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, belatedly reacting to the seriousness of the charges, issued an apology “in the name of the Spanish government.”

So far, no action has been taken against Aragones, though that surely cannot be long delayed. He has been summoned to appear before a government investigating body to explain his statements.

Ashley Cole, who was involved in a shoving match with Aragones on the sidelines at the Bernabeu, says he should be fired: “To me it was Aragones who started everything that happened … and still [he] has not condemned it. It’s as if he agrees with it. If you don’t condemn it, then you must condone it.”

There’s little doubt that FIFA will punish the Spanish soccer association, probably by imposing a fine and placing a limited ban on the Bernabeu as a venue for international games. The pressure on the Spanish to take action was dramatically increased on Sunday, when FIFA President Sepp Blatter waded in with an extraordinary pronouncement that FIFA was considering a recommendation that would encourage players to walk off the field if racially abused.

“I am still shocked by what happened to the England players,” said Blatter, “I would have supported them walking off.”

This contradicts over 100 years of soccer history, during which abandoning the field – other than at the referee’s instruction – has been the ultimate no-no, and has always resulted in the guilty team forfeiting the game. Blatter’s statement, which seems designed to encourage abused teams to quit the field, looks like yet another example of his celebrated shoot-from-the-hip statements on controversial issues.

An immediate criticism – that fans of a losing team might start racial chants as a way to get the game abandoned – seems misplaced, as the team of the chanting fans would surely be required to forfeit such a game. A much trickier point was raised by England’s captain, David Beckham. Who, he asked, should make the decision to leave the field? Not the players, says Beckham: “I feel a decision like that is down to what the coach feels.”

But soccer’s rules have always decreed that only the referee can suspend a game. Dutch referee Ruud Bossen did just that during a game on Sunday. Reacting to abuse from the fans, he ordered both Vitesse Arnhem and PSV Eindhoven off the field for a 15-minute spell. The abuse was not racial, rather personal insults and threats directed at Bossen. Abuse from the fans is hardly anything new for referees, but Bossen’s reaction suggests that it is becoming more threatening. Or perhaps the referees are becoming less tolerant.

“Maybe it is better to pretend deafness at such a moment,” said PSV coach Guus Hiddink. “Now we are overreacting to the crowd’s chants.”

This exposes the dilemma. Bossen felt threatened because the abuse was directed at him. The correct reaction to generalized racial abuse, however, would be much more difficult for a referee to judge – especially in Europe, where there are plenty of black players, but very few black referees and virtually no black coaches.

There can be no doubting the sincerity of Blatter’s determination to combat racism in soccer. But it is not clear whether encouraging teams to walk off the field at the first sign – or the second, or maybe the third – of abuse is a workable answer.

Another game on Sunday gave a hint of the quandary that could face referees in the future: Just how much abuse warrants taking the teams off the field?

The incident is from a game in England, no less: Birmingham City at Blackburn. During the pregame warm-up, Birmingham’s Trinidadian striker Dwight Yorke claimed he was the target of racial abuse from some Blackburn fans. It may even have been only one fan. Yorke – as a former Blackburn player – would have expected abuse from the fans who used to support him. But did this overstep the mark, and become personally racist? The Birmingham coach, Steve Bruce, believes that it did, and the police are investigating.

The incident may seem slight, but it was surely not trivial to Dwight Yorke. Is it possible that in the future such abuse could result in a referee – who may fear accusations of racism if he downplays the matter – refusing to allow the game to be played?

Therein lies the danger in Blatter’s condoning of the walk-off. For friendly games, it might have some merit. But applied to competitive games, it carries the danger of enabling a small minority of racists to cause huge problems for the sport.