In what should have been a time of celebration for Watford after their FA Cup semi-final triumph, three of the club's players instead found themselves on the receiving end of racist abuse.

Troy Deeney, Adrian Mariappa and Christian Kabasele all complained of receiving discriminatory comments via their social media channels and they were far from the only ones that week.

Racism in football seems to be inexplicably on the rise and finding a suitable way of dealing with the problem is proving difficult.

However, one of the three Watford players to have received online abuse has spoken about how racism has affected him throughout his career and what he believes should be done to combat the problem.

Christian Kabasele said he has been on the receiving end of derogatory comments about the colour of his skin ever since he started playing and that it was particularly bad when he was a youngster playing in Bulgaria. He now wants to see effective punishments handed out to anyone caught making racist comments at football.

"When I was playing in Bulgaria it happened every two weeks when we played away from home," he said in an interview for the Watford programme.

"In Belgium it happened to me once. The same team's fans did it again with another player after I had left Belgium so this proves there needs to be the right punishment.

"They didn't get anything when they did it to me so they kept doing it with other players. It's their mentality.

"It's like dealing with kids - if you don't show them that what they are doing is wrong then they will keep on doing it."

As a player, Kabasele believes there is little that can be done from the pitch, other than remaining calm and not letting it affect a performance.

However, he thinks it is important for any player receiving racist abuse to come forward afterwards.

The Congolese-born Belgium international said that the more people come forward, the more it will empower others to do so.

He said: "I was still very young when this was happening in Bulgaria and unfortunately on one occasion I did try to fight back but my teammates held me back.

"I was only 20 years old at the time so I think if this happened today I would stay calm because that's the best reaction you can make.

"Stay calm and after the game speak to people about it. There is nothing to be gained from getting angry on the pitch.

"The best way to fight this is to keep speaking about this loud and clear and to be proud about who you are.

"I was so pleased when Raheem Sterling said what he said because he's a top player and he's a big star in England so when a guy like this speaks it gives more and more strength to fight this."

With reported instances of racism on the rise, Kabasele wants to see appropriate punishments brought in to deter anyone from racially abusing people.

The defender also believes that education is vitally important to ensure that this problem is not one that arises again.

He said: "Now it's all about picking the right punishment. Until this is done this kind of thing will keep increasing.

"The simple solution would be closing the stand from where certain noises come from because I don't think it's everybody in the stadium who does it.

"Maybe this would encourage people in the stadium to tell anybody near them to stop because they want to be able to come back to the next game in two weeks.

"It's so important to try and educate people as much as possible, especially children so that we can try to avoid these problems in the future."