Balotelli stands up to racists, then gets fined for his troubles
Balotelli – having a torrid time
At some stage in their career, every footballer will come off a pitch and wonder why they even bother. They might have had an awful game, perhaps they accidentally hoofed the ball into their own goal.
Or, in the case of Inter’s Mario Balotelli, perhaps they were forced to endure cruel racist chants from Chievo Verona fans, and were then delivered a preposterous punch to the underpants in the aftermath of the game.
Reports from Marca – the foreign language website – state that the Italian Under-21 international has been fined 7000 Euros for, as he was leaving the pitch, ironically applauding the Chievo fans who had racially abused him throughout the match.
The Verona club, meanwhile, has not been punished at all.
Where exactly is the justice in that?
This isn’t the first time that Balotelli has been forced to endure rather backward-thinking fans in Italy. In April last year, Juventus fans were banned from a home game for spending an entire match making up racist chants about the striker.
Perhaps it’s time to come to the Premier League?
Both Chelsea and Arsenal have expressed an interest in the teenage forward in recent weeks.
14 responses so far
Marc // January 8, 2010 at 12:55 pm
I know this might not sound contradictoy, but Ballotelli didn’t suffer Racist abuse, he suffered Racial abuse. It would have been racist if the fans targeted Ballotelli because he was black. But this isn’t the case, the targeted him because he’s an a nasty piece of work. All the same, I don’t agree at all with whatever they did say, and think its disgusting, but it wasn’t racially motivated.
Tom // January 8, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Fuck up Marc and stop talking pish.
alessio // January 8, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Marc is somewhat right, people don’t hate him because he’s black, they hate him because he’s a c*nt. They use his skin color to get to him, which isn’t right either.
Balotelli wasn’t fined for the sarcastic applause, he was fined for saying everyone from the city of Verona is “disgusting.” Ironically, many of the racist chants in the stadium were actually from Inter fans at Luciano, the Chievo player who briefly played at Inter…no uproar about that, it seems.
fabchi // January 8, 2010 at 8:20 pm
More b******t from alessio. If you don’t like a player, you don’t sing that there are not black Italians. Then you don’t boo him because he’s good or throw bananas like it happened in Roma.
Balotelli was fined yesterday for an applause after being booed for the whole game, inter was fined 15k for the chants against Luciano, a former player of inter (a real scam). Chievo, they didn’t deserve any fine even if they did the same of inter fans.
alessio // January 8, 2010 at 10:01 pm
No such racial abuse has been for Liverani, Matteo Ferrari, or Balotelli’s teammates like Eto’o or Muntari.
alessio // January 8, 2010 at 10:05 pm
Juventus fans jeered Ancelotti when he left Juve for Milan for being fat. They don’t hate fat people, they were using a sensitive issue to try and get under his skin. That’s the same thing that’s going on with Balotelli, he’s a disgraceful player and that’s why just about every team hates him.
Raph88 // January 9, 2010 at 3:06 am
oh stop defending italian fans. it might not have been racism this time but it happens a hell of a lot. i’ve been in stadia and bars. just for the record, liverani and ferrari have italian dads, so the norm is “their sort” is considered friendly. etoo and muntari HAVE received abuse. zoro also springs to mind. it’s the african theme. in italy, as in spain a while back, they don’t tend to abuse the black brazilians who have latin blood. before it used to be the albanians and other balkan people who emigrated there and now its the africans it seems. and because they’re a different colour, that gets dragged into it. poor balotelli, he must have a massive psychological complex being in a country where he has never had or can never form an identity. i don’t even blame him for most of the hot-headedness.
modjuye // January 10, 2010 at 11:53 am
Anyway , italy is well known for it racism outside and insidefootball , which may be due to ancestral origin( invasion of maures) balotelli should leave italy and come to play for premier league , serie a is not entertaining anyway , he should come and play in a country where the supporter are more civilized , and claim his first national cap for ghana not italy .
SPOT // January 10, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Balotelli can console himself with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqccyUpnZwA
Paul, North Jersey // January 10, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Alessio is 100% correct. Clarence Seedorf said the exact same thing. Seedorf basically said that all his time in Italy he never received any abuse and, that Ballotelli is being treated this way becasue he is a D-Bag.
Blue Meanie // January 11, 2010 at 9:47 am
So, what people seem to be saying here is that it’s ok to racially abuse someone if they’re a twat and you think it’s the best way to piss them off?
Josh Mcabban // January 13, 2010 at 2:37 pm
It just goes to show how far away some Italians are from the realities of people and life. The fact fans can chant and abuse a footballer because he is black says a lot about Italy as a country and their acceptance of black people. Dont get me wrong, I know England has had problems with racism in football, having witnessed it in the 80′s but come on this is Two thousand and fucking Ten for christ sakes! Regardless of who fucking racially abused who because of what fucking team he played for, its still wrong! Come on Italy you won the World Cup a tournament that epitomises “World Football” but when a black player plays in Italy, The Italian fans abuse them. What a Joke of a Country!
pizza // January 14, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Italy is probably the most racist country in western Europe by a country mile.
Ask any non-white person who has lived there for an extended period of time and I’m sure 90% would agree. A total disgrace.
But what can you expect when they continuously re-elect a provenly corrupt person as their leader
Domhuaille MacMathghamhna // January 23, 2010 at 9:20 am
Italy isn’t necessarily a racist country, despite the occasional stupidity and blind ignorance displayed at Chievo, et.al. However he is being racially abused by a minority of fascist shitheads who are permitted to enter the stadia, abuse anyone they target and then go outside and kick the shite out of opposition fans or police, if they dare intervene. The Italian FA is composed of gutless, corrupt synchophants who took 10 years to “uncover” the corrupt” Seria A owners practices. Balotelli should consider his options carefully…at least the EPL has reduced racism to a minimum.
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