Brazilian legend Pele said on Wednesday he thinks racist incidents in soccer are blown out of proportion and that if there was less publicity given those responsible the problem would likely go away.

"If everyone did as (Brazil star) Daniel (Alves), when they threw a banana at him as he took a corner, if they ate it and did nothing then nobody would do anything again," Pele told UOL web news portal, referring to last year's incident during a Barcelona game.

On that occasion Alves was praised for coolly picking up the banana and eating it.