{"id":41438,"date":"2019-11-03T19:22:17","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T19:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41438"},"modified":"2019-11-03T19:22:17","modified_gmt":"2019-11-03T19:22:17","slug":"footballer-balotelli-threatens-to-walk-off-amid-racist-chant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41438","title":{"rendered":"Footballer Balotelli threatens to walk off amid racist chant"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Italian footballer Mario Balotelli kicked the ball into the stands and\u00a0<\/span>threatened to quit Brescia’s game at Verona after home fans targeted him with racist chants during Sunday’s Serie A clash.<\/p>\n

The striker, who is back in the Serie A after terms at major Italian, English and French clubs, was calmed down by teammates and Verona players as the game was suspended for four minutes early in the second half.<\/p>\n

More:<\/h4>\n

Announcement on loudspeakers at the Bentegodi stadium then warned fans the game would be\u00a0<\/span>abandoned under the league’s anti-racism rules if the abuse\u00a0continued.<\/p>\n

Later, Balotelli, who was born in Italy<\/a> to Ghanian parents, scored a late consolation goal in his side’s 2-1 loss.<\/p>\n

Verona coach Ivan Juric said that nothing special happened against\u00a0Balotelli, save some hissing and teasing chants with no racial connotation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In September,\u00a0FIFA<\/a>\u00a0President Gianni Infantino urged Italian\u00a0football<\/a>\u00a0authorities to hand out stadium bans for supporters guilty of racism<\/a> after an incident in a Serie A match between Atalanta and Fiorentina.<\/p>\n

‘Why always me?’<\/h2>\n

The 29-year-old Balotelli experienced racism at the beginning of his career in Italy, when he rose to prominence with Inter Milan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Balotelli’s on-the-field achievements have often been overshadowed by his antics on and off the field.<\/span><\/p>\n

During his time at Manchester City, where he won the league title, Balotelli was sent off four times, threw a dart at a youth-team player and was involved in an incident that saw fireworks explode in his toilet.<\/span><\/p>\n

After scoring against Manchester United, he revealed a T-shirt under his City jersey reading, “Why Always Me?”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Italian footballer Mario Balotelli kicked the ball into the stands and\u00a0threatened to quit Brescia’s game at Verona after home fans targeted him with racist chants during Sunday’s Serie A clash. The striker, who is back in the Serie A after terms at major Italian, English and French clubs, was calmed down by teammates and Verona…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":41439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}