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Blog: Dear Balotelli...
Open letters have been written to Juventus fans to stop the insults, but Susy Campanale feels Mario Balotelli needs a talking to
Many open letters were written to the fans in a bid to stop them insulting Mario Balotelli, but I think it’s about time someone wrote an open letter to him. So, Mario, a word in your shell-like…
You have been subjected to some awful racial slurs that ought to have no place in football or in society, even one as backward when it comes to race relations as Italy. Supporters can jeer all they like and – let’s be perfectly honest here – there are a million different reasons to insult you that have nothing to do with the colour of your skin. The moment someone strays into that territory, they have automatically lost all credibility and become a mindless thug.
Right, now that’s out of the way, we can get to the basics. It’s a tense atmosphere and for weeks the entire Italian football world has rushed to your defence against these vicious verbal attacks, so you ought to win them over with your undoubted talent so the only remaining critics will be the bigots. Instead you take the biggest test of all, the Derby d’Italia surrounded by those ultras who have turned hating you into a sport in and of itself, and you act like a prize turnip.
Within 60 seconds of stepping on to the field, you’d clattered into a Juve player in an accidental collision, then visibly berated him for ‘diving’ when he was simply hurt. To top it all off, you then flail around acrobatically clutching your face when Felipe Melo lashed out an elbow that struck you meekly on the shoulder. That’s just embarrassing. Of all nights, of all people, you had to prove your detractors right with a display of unsportsmanlike behaviour and arrogance.
The Juventus fans held up a banner during the match that read: ‘Don’t kid yourself Balotelli, you’d annoy us even if you were white.’ It’s pretty difficult to disagree with them after this sorry performance. Racism must be stamped out of football, but so must play-acting, provocation of opponents and the kind of gamesmanship that has become your bread and butter.
This was the perfect opportunity to separate the bigots from the genuine lovers of fair play, but you’ve only united them now in seeing you as the villain. Shame on the racist chants and shame on you, Mario