Football star Megan Rapinoe has said that Bulgaria's fine for racism in their match against England is "an absolute joke".

The men's teams faced each other in a Euro qualifier last month where Bulgarian fans hurled racist abuse at English players like Raheem Sterling.

UEFA's punishment was a £65,000 fine and said Bulgaria have to play two matches behind closed doors, something Rapinoe says isn't heavy handed enough.

Rapinoe said: "£65,000 is an absolute joke. For me I'm just like, make it super extreme so it's damaging to the team, to the federation, so it's damaging financially.

"I need all the players on Raheem's team, all the players in the Premier League and in the leagues abroad to make it their problem because it really is everybody's issue." Rapinoe told BBC's Newsbeat.

Rapinoe also spoke about equal pay, a topic she is familiar with as the 34-year-old, alongside the entire US team, have taken legal action against their governing body US Soccer in order to earn the same amount as their male counterparts.

When asked what message the winger would send to other women fighting the same cause, Rapinoe added: "Don't settle for anything less, go for equal, go for more, don't accept any of these sort of antiquated and BS answers.

"Especially when it comes to sport there's been such a lack of investment for such a long period of time, so any direct comparison to the men's sports or the men's leagues is just wholly unfair.

"Until we have equal investment and over investment really, because we've been so underserved for so long, we're not gonna have any sort of meaningful conversation about compensation and revenues and TV viewership.

"I know it's frustrating and hard - at times you feel like you're banging your head against a wall - but we're sort of in it anyways.

"It's a fact of life for us so we might as well fight like hell."