AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli has said that he has been subjected to much racial abuse and will walk off pitch if he faces anymore racial slurs during the game.
Sunday's Italian league game against Roma saw Balotelli subjected to racial slurs, which changed his way of thinking and reacting to them, CNN reports.
According to the report, the continuous abuse brought the league game to a halt as the stadium's PA announcer warned the Roma supporters that they will end the match if the abuse does not stop.
Balotelli said that his staying on at the game despite the abuse does not mean that he is indifferent, vowing that next time he is targeted for racial abuse, he will leave the game and walk off the pitch.
Stating that he was about to leave the pitch on Sunday, Balotelli said that he planned to stay back as he realized that people might think that he wanted to leave in the fear that he might lose.
The report said that the leading international soccer player is not the first player from the club to suffer racial discrimination this season, adding that Balotelli's team-mate Kevin-Prince Boateng had also been hit at with racial slurs during a friendly match against Pro Patria in January.
Meanwhile, FIFA president Sepp Blatter strongly criticized that Roma was fined only 65,000 dollars by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) for practicing racism in the football stadium and condemned the punishment by saying that he will call FIGC over his disappointment with the paltry amount being sought as a redressal to the ever-growing problem of racism in the field.
