Racism in Dutch professional football is a wider problem than thought, according to research by television current affairs show EenVandaag.

The show’s researchers spoke to 28 captains from the 38 professional clubs in the Netherlands and 21 of them said racist chanting is more common that it would appear to be from the news coverage.

In addition, almost one third said they experienced racist incidents at least a couple of times every six months.

Nevertheless, only a handful of team captains said their clubs had planned what to do if there was racist chanting from the stands. Those that do have an agreement say they will walk off the pitch.

The issue of racism in football came to a head last November at a match between Excelsior and Den Bosch, which led to Excelsior players walking off.

The cabinet and football association KNVB will shortly announce a number of measures to combat racism in football stadiums, the AD reported last week.

The package will include more and better camera surveillance at the stadiums and an app which enables supporters to report incidences of racial abuse anonymously, the paper was told by people involved.