Arsène Wenger has faced abuse from rival supporters throughout his career. Standing in the dugout, he is a prime target. Yet when the language degenerates from innocent “banter” to that of a highly personal nature, the Arsenal manager believes that the individuals should be caught and punished.

It is why he can empathise and sympathise with Sol Campbell, the Portsmouth and former Arsenal defender who was subjected to homophobic chants from fans of Tottenham Hotspur, another of the player's former clubs, at Fratton Park on Sunday. Wenger, though, is not convinced that it is the North London club who should be held responsible.

“It is difficult to say that you punish a club directly because of two or three idiots in the stand who wear your shirt and are abusive,” Wenger said. “Can you punish a club when 0.1 per cent act stupidly and 99.9 per cent act correctly? I think you should make individual people responsible.

“In Spurs' case, I believe it was not only racism, it was disappointed love, or what they [the Tottenham fans] felt was betrayed love. Some just showed their aggression against a guy who left their club and who they didn't want to leave. Abuse can't be tolerated by anyone to anyone in the world.”

Campbell has not been forgiven by Tottenham fans for joining Arsenal, their fierce rivals, in 2001. He moved to Portsmouth five years later, but the ill-feeling has continued. When Wenger arrived at Arsenal in September 1996, he had to endure similarly distasteful chanting from fans about his personal life. “It is very difficult,” he said. “I was confronted with that many times. If you respond to it, you have no chance to win and you become mad and upset. When you are the victim, you can only ignore it. I ignored it because I was old enough, so it didn't affect me at all.

“The football bodies cannot tolerate this because we are in a period now where football is a world-dominating sport that has a huge influence on people. We have to give out a vision where we respect values.”

After Portsmouth had beaten Tottenham 2-0, Harry Redknapp, the South Coast club's manager, branded the verbal attacks on Campbell as “filthy”. Hampshire Police received a complaint and are investigating the matter. Although Wenger believes that the perpetrators, especially those guilty of racist abuse, should be rooted out, he feels that England leads the way in combating the problem.

“You can punish people individually by not letting them into the ground,” Wenger said. “There are groups of people who go from game to game doing this. You need to not tolerate them being together because, sometimes, stupidity is contagious. Sometimes it looks like there is a competition going on in the crowd to see who can be the most stupid.

“Racist abuse is much worse in other countries. England has shown the right direction by not tolerating it, much more than any other country. People just don't accept it in this country. I think this country is a model for other countries to copy.”

On a less contentious topic, Wenger warned Stuart Pearce, the England Under-21 coach, that he might not benefit from including Theo Walcott, the Arsenal winger, in his squad if England reach the European Under-21 Championship finals next summer. Walcott, 19, scored a hat-trick in the senior team's 4-1 win against Croatia in their 2010 World Cup qualifying match in Zagreb last month.

“I am not against it, but I believe it is a difficult mentality for a player once he has gone into the top team to be completely focused on the under-21s,” Wenger said. “I would not stand in his way, but all the examples I have seen of this have not worked. Theo is young enough and loves his country enough to play.”