Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has urged UEFA to be "serious" and issue punishment on Serbia following their fans' racial abuse of members of the England Under-21 team.

The young guns' 1-0 victory and progression into the Euro 2013 finals was marred by monkey chants targeted at England full-back Danny Rose.

Ferdinand tweeted: "Let's see if UEFA are serious or will they just treat this U21 incident as a minor....as they have before with their laughable punishments.."

Rose has revealed that the racial abuse towards him began as early as the warm-up last night.