Once again, Mario Balotelli may face a possible ban due to his actions off the pitch. Yesterday, the Italian striker uploaded a picture to his Instagram account about the video game character Mario Bros., in which he refers to the ethnicity of the character in sort of a discriminatory manner. After a few minutes, Balotelli removed the image from his account, but the issue was not ignored by the English Football Association, which could possibly end up with Balotelli banned for up to five games.
After he deleted the Mario Bros. picture, Balotelli uploaded a new image in which he stated: "My mother's jewish, so all of u shut up, please." Later, Liverpool's number 45 apologized via his Twitter feed.
I apologize if I’ve offended anyone. The post was meant to be anti-racist with humour. I now understand that (...) pic.twitter.com/UlNeNlEz9M
— Mario Balotelli (@FinallyMario) December 2, 2014
Balotelli's season has been rather disappointing for Liverpool fans, that welcomed him with open arms this summer. Earlier this year, Balotelli received racists insults after mocking Manchester United's loss against Leicester City, and a few weeks later, he was harshly criticized for exchanging shirts with Real Madrid's Pepe during their UEFA Champions league at Anfield Road.
Balotelli has always been a fan of Mario Bros. Before yesterday's incident, he had a profile picture of him holding the character's doll by the neck, but he's changed it afterwards.
Image from Mario Balotelli's Instagram account (later deleted)
Mario Balotelli's previous profile picture, holding the video game character.
