Football in fresh race storm as inflatable banana lands near Gervinho and Feyenoord-Roma tie twice halted by referee

Football was hit by a fresh racism storm after the referee was forced TWICE to stop Feyenoord's highly-charged Europa League tie against Roma following apparent incidents of racism.

Referee Clement Turpin briefly held up the match towards the end of the first half after an inflatable banana landed on the pitch near Roma's Ivory Coast forward Gervinho on Thursday.

The 32-year-old French official spoke to both managers and a UEFA official before resuming the match. 

But Turpin was forced to to take both teams off the pitch amid concerns for the safety of the players in the 55th minute, following the controversial dismissal of Feyenoord's Mitchell Te Vrede for a challenge on Kostas Manola. 

The teams returned about 10 minutes later and almost immediately substitute Elvis Manu equalised for the Dutch side but Gervinho put Roma 2-1 in front three minutes later which was the final score, giving them a 3-2 win on aggregate. 

'It was right to suspend play as we could have opened a shop with all the objects that were thrown from the stands,' Roma coach Rudi Garcia told Italy's Mediaset channel. 

'It doesn't help the club, and I'll never cheer that,' Feyenoord coach Fred Rutten said. 'Those sorts of things only hurt Feyenoord. It's a shame it happened.'