Mario Balotelli given until Monday to respond to racism charge

Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli has until Monday night to respond to being charged by the Football Association over alleged racist and anti-Semitic comments he made on social media.

The Italian reposted an image of computer game character Super Mario on his Instagram account last week, which was accompanied by the words “jumps like a black man and grabs coins like a Jew”.

While he deleted the post and issued an apology, the FA confirmed he had been charged with posting a message that was “abusive and/or insulting and/or improper” and that this is an ‘aggravated breach’ as it included a reference to ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race and/or nationality and/or religion or belief.

Vivian Wineman, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: “Balotelli’s sharing of images which use unacceptable language and appeal to classic anti-Semitic tropes is troubling.”

Meanwhile, Wigan chairman Dave Whelan has until tomorrow night to answer a misconduct charge over remarks he made about Jewish and Chinese people.