Mario Balotelli [On the Road to Ballon d'or)

[kingfunk]

I get what he's saying, he's not a racist, just facking stupid innit.

[tanner]

I get what he's saying, he's not a racist, just facking stupid innit.

[Rigadon]

Feel really sorry for Mario. He's suffered so much racism throughout his life, and career, and now he's been charged with racism. He's not a racist. He's not a bad person. He is stupid (on times).

The FA have no common sense whatsoever - a professional game run by hypocritical amateurs.

[dom9]

Feel really sorry for Mario. He's suffered so much racism throughout his life, and career, and now he's been charged with racism. He's not a racist. He's not a bad person. He is stupid (on times).

The FA have no common sense whatsoever - a professional game run by hypocritical amateurs.

I completely have sympathy with your first paragraph.

But you just can't refer to Jews as money grabbers.

[Rigadon]

I completely have sympathy with your first paragraph.

But you just can't refer to Jews as money grabbers.

IMO he was trying to use humour to stick two fingers up to the real racists - being self-deprecating. He got it wrong.

I think, on times, we (as a society) try so hard (too hard) to be politically correct. We need to start using common sense. There's no place for racism but being stupid doesn't equate to racism.

Regarding Mario - the club and the FA needed to say something, and the player needed to respond (apologise - sincerely). But, as usual, the FA have gone overboard.

[Bender]

Balotelli's an idiot simple as that,he's a track record of stupidity in the prem league,he knows what the FA are like,also after Rio Ferdinand s tweet,the stuff involving Malky Mackay and Dave Whelan, did Balotelli honestly think tweeting what he did using the wording he did was gonna be acceptable players like him should be given a coloring book and made to do a 1+1 test before signing a contract

[Doc_Piptorious]

Balotelli's an idiot simple as that,he's a track record of stupidity in the prem league,he knows what the FA are like,also after Rio Ferdinand s tweet,the stuff involving Malky Mackay and Dave Whelan, did Balotelli honestly think tweeting what he did using the wording he did was gonna be acceptable players like him should be given a coloring book and made to do a 1+1 test before signing a contract

I think the lad is a tad stupid, and I think he should not get away with what he put up. But there needs to be consistency from those dishing out the punishments.

Balotelli is a foreign lad playing in England. Yes he played there before but I doubt his English is as good as a native when it comes to nuances of the language. Couple that with him coming across as being somewhat dim and that is a recipe for cluster****s.


Then we have the likes of Mackay, Moody, Scudmore and Whelan. All British. All speaking their native language. All living in the country whose culture they grew up with.

Balotelli's idiotic and offensive brainfart looks to be getting fast tracked. The FA seem to be acting very quickly on it, and if their remit is now to include social media then fair play to them for acting quickly.

But then we look at the British lads who came out with comments/texts/emails that were either intended as racist/sexist slurs or that were far less ambiguous in context than what Balotelli did.

Did we see swift action from the FA leading to punishments? Nope we saw Scudmore continue as the Chief Executive of the Premier League despite what he sent in his emails. We have seen the Mackay and Moody issue drag on for the past three or four months with no sign of the FA actually applying a punishment. We have even seen Mackay move on to another job where he now works for the last man on my list, a man who seems to think he can throw in derogatory terms for Chinese people, Jewish people and others even when he is being interviewed about his earlier digressions.

Are all those men being just as damaging to the image of the game as Balotelli? They have to be given what they have said. But we are not seeing the FA act as swiftly with them, and there are no signs of any strong action being taken against them.

Make no mistake, I do think that Balotelli needs a dressing down/sanction for his comments as well as to be educated somewhat in how to engage his brain before he acts in the future, but it is galling to see him being hung out to dry for what looks like a genuine error in judgement/lack of awareness when you see men coming out with far more offensive comments and not receiving the same vigorous reaction from the FA as Balotelli is seemingly receiving.

[Vermilion]

100% Jaco.

It's as usual blown out of all proportion. imho.

There's a million more important things happening every day that people should and could call for justice on or get irate about!

[Kenneth]

Classic 'whataboutary'.

The length of time it takes for a punishment to be handed out makes no difference, and it's not hard to see how it's easier and quicker to follow a relatively well established process for player disciplinary issues than it is to pass judgement on a manager or an owner. Maybe the treatment won't be fair and equitable but the evidence for a foreign vs british difference doesn't stack up imo.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Classic 'whataboutary'.

The length of time it takes for a punishment to be handed out makes no difference, and it's not hard to see how it's easier and quicker to follow a relatively well established process for player disciplinary issues than it is to pass judgement on a manager or an owner. Maybe the treatment won't be fair and equitable but the evidence for a foreign vs british difference doesn't stack up imo.

It is not a case of being british meaning a lesser punishment imo, but rather a case of being british should mean you have less by way of a "oh I did not know it was offensive here to say that here in Britain" type defence.


And I don't see why the manager of a club should need all that much of a different process to a player of a club tbh. If you are dumb or ignorant enough to make racist comments, then being a player or manager should not make a difference.

Just because a person is in a higher up position does not mean they should be treated in a different manner when they say or do something in a blatant manner. If a player can be charged with tarnishing the image of the game with a tweet, instagram, or in an interview, then the exact same should apply to a manager or owner.

If a player makes a comment about jewish people and it is seen as being anti- semetic, then a club owner who makes just as blatant a comment should not be given more leeway because of his position especially if that owner has a track record of making comments that could cause offence.


It may be a simplistic or idealistic view to take, but I do not agree with the notion that a higher up position should grant one some sort of extra immunity or time when that person is just as blatant in the transgression as the person in a lower position.


And the length of time a process takes does make a difference imo if it means an advantage is given to one person who makes a blatant comment over another person who makes an equally blatant comment.

[Red_Polo]

Surely owners and managers need to be held to a higher standard than players? They lead them / are responsible for their employment so if there are issues of race the impact it can have is greater. I think it warrants digging deeper and investigating further, as opposed to doling out a punishment and leaving it at that.

Anyway, no complaints from me about Mario being punished for the racist joke.

[captainfog]

The FA charge is utterly pathetic. I hope they ban him though because as a footballer he's even more pathetic.

[Bender]

The FA charge is utterly pathetic. I hope they ban him though because as a footballer he's even more pathetic.

[Bender]

I think the lad is a tad stupid, and I think he should not get away with what he put up. But there needs to be consistency from those dishing out the punishments.

Balotelli is a foreign lad playing in England. Yes he played there before but I doubt his English is as good as a native when it comes to nuances of the language. Couple that with him coming across as being somewhat dim and that is a recipe for cluster****s.


Then we have the likes of Mackay, Moody, Scudmore and Whelan. All British. All speaking their native language. All living in the country whose culture they grew up with.

Balotelli's idiotic and offensive brainfart looks to be getting fast tracked. The FA seem to be acting very quickly on it, and if their remit is now to include social media then fair play to them for acting quickly.

But then we look at the British lads who came out with comments/texts/emails that were either intended as racist/sexist slurs or that were far less ambiguous in context than what Balotelli did.

Did we see swift action from the FA leading to punishments? Nope we saw Scudmore continue as the Chief Executive of the Premier League despite what he sent in his emails. We have seen the Mackay and Moody issue drag on for the past three or four months with no sign of the FA actually applying a punishment. We have even seen Mackay move on to another job where he now works for the last man on my list, a man who seems to think he can throw in derogatory terms for Chinese people, Jewish people and others even when he is being interviewed about his earlier digressions.

Are all those men being just as damaging to the image of the game as Balotelli? They have to be given what they have said. But we are not seeing the FA act as swiftly with them, and there are no signs of any strong action being taken against them.

Make no mistake, I do think that Balotelli needs a dressing down/sanction for his comments as well as to be educated somewhat in how to engage his brain before he acts in the future, but it is galling to see him being hung out to dry for what looks like a genuine error in judgement/lack of awareness when you see men coming out with far more offensive comments and not receiving the same vigorous reaction from the FA as Balotelli is seemingly receiving.

End of the day in an already over sensitive world where Racism is thriving he should simply not have put it on social media,many examples recently for him to think to himself and say nah best not put this on social media.

[dww]

Surely owners and managers need to be held to a higher standard than players? They lead them / are responsible for their employment so if there are issues of race the impact it can have is greater. I think it warrants digging deeper and investigating further, as opposed to doling out a punishment and leaving it at that.

Anyway, no complaints from me about Mario being punished for the racist joke.

That said I'm not sure that the FA should be trying to police what is said in peoples private lives/on social media. It seems a bit of a hopeless cause. The point about what you do in terms of running your club and the work environment made about owners probably does give them some mandate I suppose. Along with the idea that people want/feel football has a social import that makes it different to other businesses.

I also think there is a big question about what the right punishment is. In general it seems that with racist and sexist/misogynist comments the plan is to slap individuals on the wrist without trying to explain why what they did was wrong. Rio Ferdinand's reaction to his latest punishment seemed to show that no change in attitude or even engagement with the issue had happened.

I can't decide whether Mario has or not (the pretty genuine seeming apology was somewhat undermined to me by the 'my Mum is Jewish' defence being added in but then he might reasonable have felt under attack and spoken without thinking too hard about how it would sound).