Inter Milan have been fined just £43,000 (50,000 euros) by the Italian league after their fans racially abused former player Mario Balotelli during Sunday's city derby with AC Milan.
Balotelli has also been fined £8,600 for making an 'insulting gesture' to Inter fans at the end of the game.
Balotelli, who moved from Manchester City to AC Milan during the January transfer window, was subjected to monkey chants by a minority of Inter fans during the 1-1 at the San Siro, while some waved inflatable bananas whenever he touched the ball.
A statement released by Serie A said the fine was for 'screams and chants expressing racial discrimination.'
Inter were also fined for four banners expressing 'insults towards the player and the opposition team', while AC Milan were fined about £8,600 for three banners 'insulting opposition fans and players.'
The overt racism Balotelli faced in the stands on Sunday evening will have come as an unpleasant surprise upon his return to his homeland.
Sources close to the former Manchester City striker say that one of the things he liked most about English football was the zero-tolerance approach to the kind of racism that has been rife in Italy for many years.
Reaction to Sunday’s incidents was muted there yesterday. The headline in Tuttosport that read ‘SuperMario’s black night’ referred to Balotelli’s failure to score in his first derby since joining AC Milan from City for £19.5m last month rather than any issues to do with the colour of his skin.
Some media outlets did not even mention it and although Serie A chiefs will discuss what action — if any — to take at a meeting in Milan this afternoon, the punishment is unlikely to be severe. When Inter fans prepared for Balotelli’s return to Italy by making racist chants in a recent game against Chievo, their club was fined £12,300.
Inter president Massimo Moratti apologised on that occasion, but although supporters agreed not to do it again on Sunday night, some could not help themselves.
At one point, Balotelli tried to silence a banana-waving man shouting obscenities from the crowd by putting his finger to his lips.
Whoops: Balotelli can't make the contact with the ball he desires and Samir Handanovic collects it
This, don’t forget, is a former Inter player who was first subjected to racist chants by Juventus fans during a game four years ago.
‘I hope I can help Italy to be a modern country like England or America,’ a surprisingly philosophical Balotelli told Time Magazine in November, having previously threatened to ‘kill’ anyone who dared to throw a banana at him during Euro 2012.
This is by no means the first time Balotelli had encountered racism after ending his turbulent two-and-a-half year stay in England.
He had barely touched down on Italian soil when AC Milan vice-president Paolo Berlusconi, younger brother of the club’s owner Silvio, referred to him as ‘the family’s little n*****’.
Silvio Berlusconi had dismissed Balotelli as a ‘rotten apple’ before deciding to sanction a transfer that many in Italy feel was politically motivated by the three-time former prime minister who is once again running for office in the current elections. One newspaper estimated that signing Balotelli could be worth nearly half a million votes to Berlusconi.
Leap: Balotelli rises highest and he tries to win the ball in the air
Being a political football was not what Balotelli had in mind when he left his old mentor Roberto Mancini.
Surprisingly, he has steered clear of the antics that blighted his career in England. Apart from a row with a policeman over a parking issue at Milan airport, so far his off-the-field problems have been limited to a threat of legal action against his old fiancée Rafaella Fico, who used a gossip magazine to complain about how little time he spends with their baby daughter.
The 22-year-old has a new partner in Belgian model Fanny Neguesha and they have quickly become Milan’s most prominent celebrity couple.
Smoked out: Balotelli stands amongst fog caused by the flares being lit
It certainly seems to be paying dividends on the pitch. A striker who had scored just three times for City all season has got four in his first three games for Milan. Balotelli had a chance to continue that run in Sunday’s 1-1 draw but Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic produced a brilliant save to keep out his header.
‘He had a temperature of 38 degrees but still played well,’ said his agent Mino Raiola. ‘He was really relaxed and calm.’
It seems that Balotelli will need to be all that and more to cope with life back home in Italy.
