Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli’s legal team submitted a raft of evidence and comparative cases to the Football Associations following their decision to hand the 24-year old a misconduct charge for his now infamous “Super Mario” posting on Instagram, but it was his “sincere and honest” mitigation that helped persuade the independent panel to let the Italian off with a one match ban and a fine of £25,000.
“Mr Balotelli said that he deeply regretted posting the image and that he had removed it as soon as it was brought to his attention by other users that it could cause offence” said Roger Burden, who was in charge of the FA commission that handed down the punishment to Balotelli. “He said that he was shocked to find the image was offensive because, out of sheer naivety, he had not understood the implication of the comments which appeared on the image.”
Whether or not the 24-year old, who is a controversy magnet, actually understood what he was posting or not, is up for debate, but what isn’t a point of contention is that the striker continues to be a strong, extremely vocal advocate for eradicating any form of racism from football. Balotelli, who has been the target of a number of high profile incidents of racism in the past, called on those experiences in his letter to the FA — which was one of the factors that lead to a lesser ban.
“In his letter, Mr Balotelli also said he had suffered from racism on a great number of occasions. He added he is of Ghanaian heritage and his maternal grandmother was Jewish and had escaped Nazi Germany” explained Burden. “Mr Ives [from the FA judicial services department] informed us that, whilst we did have flexibility for leniency, under the guidance for this type of offence there would be an expectation of a sporting sanction and the minimum sporting sanction therefore for consideration was a one-match ban.”
