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

[captainfog]

Yeah, but Bendy, he's a ****ing moron, he's not a racist, in fact he was trying to be the opposite of racist when he posted it. If you are going to charge footballers for being morons then you might as well charge all of them because they are all as thick as ****.

[fidget]

I really shouldn't need too.

In an ideal world you shouldn't but...........
this is clearly very confusing for the majority of people especially when the press put their twist on it.
Google Balotelli tweet and it appears that he is guilty of racism not an ill thought out attempt at promoting racial harmony as is clearly the case.
The wording of the FA charge aids and abets this so some clarification would be nice.
Also Mario's complete lack of impact as a player is helping to form people's opinions.
If he was on 10 goals by now this thread would be taking a different course.

[Red_Polo]

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).

I was ambivalent about them acting on social media comments at first too, but really it's just another form of speech like an interview and if you're in for a penny you're in for a pound.

Agreed it is all punishment no rehabilitation, but what can they realistically do given half the time they probably don't fully understand why it's wrong themselves

[Slinky Skills]

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

[Bender]

Yeah, but Bendy, he's a ****ing moron, he's not a racist, in fact he was trying to be the opposite of racist when he posted it. If you are going to charge footballers for being morons then you might as well charge all of them because they are all as thick as ****.

I agree he's not a racist infact he's been on the receiving end of it,but it's more his level of stupidity,i mean after the rio tweet you'd have thought the next footballer to do something similar has to be dumb,and no surprise Balotelli does do something similar,but we all knew what to expect when we signed him,as for the FA well there a circus act

[Doc_Piptorious]

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.

And I already said in my post that I think he should be brought to task over it. I just happen to think that the FA are very inconsistent with regards to racism/sexism etc.

[fidget]

Misogyny is fine but foreigners must be cured of punished for their racism.

[dom9]

Jaco, my take on the length of time to bring each case to charge is due to complexity and gathering of evidence.

Tweet = open and shut case. It's there. On its own.

With Whelan there's still stuff coming out of the woodwork by all accounts. It takes longer to build a case.

It took them months to charge Suarez Re Evra.

[EwarWoo]

but the evidence for a foreign vs british difference doesn't stack up imo.

****ing black cunt - 4 game ban.
Negro - 8 game ban.

[fidget]

****ing black cunt - 4 game ban.
Negro - 8 game ban.

but he said it 6,8 12 or 13 times or maybe more

[Kenneth]

****ing black cunt - 4 game ban.
Negro - 8 game ban.

Still doesn't.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Jaco, my take on the length of time to bring each case to charge is due to complexity and gathering of evidence.

Tweet = open and shut case. It's there. On its own.

With Whelan there's still stuff coming out of the woodwork by all accounts. It takes longer to build a case.

It took them months to charge Suarez Re Evra.

The Mackay and Moody case has a string of emails and texts that contain racist comments. Surely if viewing a tweet or whatever is enough, then a string of emails and texts should be enough to enough and if any new texts or emails surface in the future then nail them for that as well. Should really not take four months with no sign of any change if there are texts and emails on display.


Scudmore sent emails that were deemed sexist, and he was not sanctioned and kept his job.

Whelan's original comments about Jewish people looked pretty clear cut yet he has managed to compound that comment by adding a few more and he was also allowed to get even more time to explain himself because he requested more time.


How I see it is that Balotelli did the right thing by issuing an apology, but that does not take away from the stupidity of what he did. He should still be punished and then a genuine attempt made to educate him on, if nothing else, how to thinking before he types.


The thing to remember imo is that this is not a court of law and as such the same level of detail does not come into play, something we have already seen in many FA rulings.


If Balotelli's comment about jews chasing coins is deemed something that damages the image of the game (and it does as it is an offensive stereotype), then Whelan's comment about how Jews love money ticks the same boxes and should be just as clear cut to set a punishment for.

I know my take on it is really simplifying things, but sometimes it makes more sense to keep thing simple.



As for Suarez/Evra taking months. Well that was one man's word against another man's word and there was no evidence other than what the men involved said.


With Balotelli, Mackay, Moody, Scudmore, and Whelan there is recorded proof of what they typed or said, so there is a bit more to go on from the outset.

[Kenneth]

I know my take on it is really simplifying things, but sometimes it makes more sense to keep thing simple.

Why?

[Doc_Piptorious]

Why?

Why not? And the key word in what I said was "sometimes"

[Kenneth]

Because the devil usually lies in the detail.