Why always him?
Mario Balotelli was given a yellow card yesterday for complaining to the referee about racist chants coming from the crowd while playing for OGC Nice in Ligue 1.
The incident occurred during OGC Nice’s game away to Dijon on Saturday. Balotelli missed a shot in the 72nd minute and wasn’t happy about how the Dijon fans reacted.
The Italian striker felt that the home fans were directing racist abuse at him, so informed the referee, who showed him a yellow card.
Dans l’intervalle, Mario Balotelli a hérité d’un carton jaune, après… s’être agacé d’insultes racistes du public. pic.twitter.com/5C1V8MXBYq
— OGC Nice (@ogcnice) February 10, 2018
Instead of noting down Balotelli’s complaint with the intention of dealing with the situation and making sure the Dijon fans were appropriately punished, the referee made out Balotelli to be the culprit for simply reporting abuse.
Nice president Jean-Pierre Rivere complained about the officiating from Nicolas Rainville after the game, but did not mention Balotelli’s yellow card. He was more focussed on a dubious penalty decision.
Dijon won the game 3-2, but the match was tainted by another case of a player’s complaint of racism not being dealt with appropriately; a sad indictment on football and a sign of how much still has to be done.
It’s not the first time Balotelli has been on the end of racist abuse while playing in Italy and France and won’t be the last unless the authorities take more drastic action.
