Racists target Man City striker Balotelli in Italy game - BBC Sport
Racists target Man City striker Balotelli in Italy game - BBC Sport
Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli has been subjected to racist abuse during Italy’s 1-1 draw with Romania.
The Manchester City striker was repeatedly booed by a group of about 100 extreme right-wing Italian fans.
A banner of bearing the message - “No to a multi-ethnic national team” - was confiscated in Klagenfurt’s HypoArena stadium where the match was played.
“If I have to hear those chants every time, you can’t go forward like that,” Balotelli told Mediaset in Italy.
“I leave others to do the judgement. I am happy to be in the national team.”
Only 3,000 fans watched the game in Austria because of commercial reasons.
However, Balotelli believes it is not fair that the majority of the supporters should suffer because of the behaviour of a minority.
“It wouldn’t be right to stop a game because a few fans that turn up to the stadium behave like that,” he said.
“We need to change these people but it’s not me that has to do it.
“Where I live, the people don’t reason like these people.
“A multi-ethnic Italy already exists and we can do better.”
Before his move to City from Inter Milan during the summer the Sicily-born Balotelli was subjected to racist abuse by Juventus supporters, who hung banners in their stadium last year which read: “A negro cannot be Italian”.