Mario Balotelli is always trailed by one media controversy after another, the Liverpool striker has been charged by the English Football Association with racially stereotyping black and Jewish people in an Instagram post that read: “Don’t be racist — be like Mario. He’s an Italian plumber created by Japanese people who speaks English and looks like a Mexican.’ But at the bottom of the image were other words that read: ‘jumps like a black man and grabs coin like a Jew.” The post was from an image of video game character Super Mario.
The Italian player quickly deleted the post and later apologized after sparking controversy for his post. In another post, he defended his his earlier one by adding: ‘My mom is Jewish so all of u shut up please’
But Balotelli’s apology was not enough as he has now been charged by the FA under rule E3 that defines his posting to be ‘abusive/insulting or improper ‘. He has until 6pm on December 15 to respond to the charge.
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“It is further alleged that this is an ‘Aggravated Breach’ as defined by FA Rule E3[2] as it included a reference to ethnic origin and/or color and/or race and/or nationality and/or religion or belief.
However, former FA executive Simon Johnson called on the FA to punish the 24-year-old Balotelli.
“We abhor all forms of racism, wherever it is found,” Johnson, who is the
Current chief executive of the UK Jewish Leadership Council and former FA executive Simon Johnson, has called on the FA to punish the 24-year-old Balotelli.
Speaking to the UK Daily Telegraph, he said: “We call upon the FA to investigate this offensive social media post and to take action if appropriate if we are to succeed in kicking racism out of football.”
Under the FA’s social media guidelines, the minimum ban for race-related rule breaches is five games.
[author ]Noretta loum[/author]