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Balotelli, City accept ban

Comment: 0 January 26th, 2012

MANCHESTER City’s Mario Balotelli will serve a four-match ban after declining to appeal against the Football Association charge.

The 21-year-old striker was cited for his disorderly conduct against Tottenham Hotspur’s Scott Parker after an apparent stomp that caught Parker’s head.

City and Balotelli were given until 6 p.m. Wednesday to try and make an appeal to overturn the decision, but apparentl decided not to. According to the club’s assistant manager David Platt, the slow motion video “did not look good”.

The decision not to appeal was to avoid the risk of extending the length of the ban if the FA decide the appeal seemed suspicious.

The Italian striker immediately missed out on last Wednesday’s second leg of the Carling Cup tie against Liverpool, where they lost 2-3 on aggregate. He will also miss three more fixtures in the Premier league – at Everton on Tuesday, Fulham on Saturday and at Aston Villa on the 13^th of February.

Instead of getting the usual three-match ban that is given for a player proven of misconduct, Balotelli received four matches due to a red card that he got earlier this season.

Referee Howard Webb, the official during the match, claimed he missed the incident at the time, but told the FA that he would have sent off the City forward if he did.

The statement clearly did not sit well with Balotelli.

According to the player’s agent, Mino Raiola, “If the English don’t start to protect Mario [Balotelli] a little bit more, we will have to look at other alternatives and leave the UK.”

While a few people think that the elbow City’s Joleon Lescott threw on Spurs’ Younes Kaboul and Stoke City’s Peter Crouch’s eye-gouge on West Brom’s Jonas Olsson were much worse than what Balotelli did, most still believe the City striker got what he deserved.

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