• The head of the Verona branch against Balotelli: "It can never be completely Italian"
  • Verona, buu a Balotelli. The controversy, Minister Spadafora, explodes: now concrete initiatives
  • Racism, mother insults baby-soccer player. Letter to the Minister

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05 November 2019 Legally spread the football player Mario Balotelli and "all those who attack Verona by unfairly defaming it". This is the request contained by the motion presented yesterday by Veronese city councilor Andrea Bacciga (Beats for Verona), after when it happened Sunday during the match between Hellas Verona and Brescia. According to the motion, Balotelli would have left the camp accusing the Verona supporters of chanting racist choirs but "no one present at the stadium heard these howls, nor the audience present, nor the Brescia bench nor the journalists present".

Following the event, which also led to a suspension of the game, "a media campaign against the city of Verona immediately began". Hence the motion, which reads: "It is no longer acceptable for Verona to be put on the dock even when, as in this case, nothing has happened".

The right hand ultras: Balotelli not Italian
"Balotelli is Italian because he has Italian citizenship, but he can never be completely Italian." This is the case of Luca Castellini, head of Hellas Verona fans, now live on Radio Cafè. The ultras chief was contacted by the broadcast after the 'buu' and the racist choirs addressed yesterday to the footballer during the Verona-Brescia match. Responding to the question whether the curve is racist or not, Castellini added: "We also have a negro in the team, who scored yesterday, and all of Verona beat his hands".

"Are there any problems in saying the word negro?", Concluded the leader of the supporters, regardless of the negative connotation now commonly associated with this term. "Will the Segre Commission come for me because I call a Negro? Does the bell ring for me?".

"We have a culture of identity of a certain type, we are a supporter that is irreverent, which takes for the c ... the bald player, the one with long hair, the southern player and the black player, but he does not do it with political or racist instincts. This is folklore, everything stops there ". Thus Luca Castellini in direct broadcasting with the Radio Cafè station. "Balotelli, who is a finished player, decided yesterday, driven in my opinion by someone and something, to make that clowning and throw the ball into the curve", continues Castellini. "Next year Balotelli will no longer play football, he will go on television to be the first woman. As soon as he was under the curve of Verona he decided to throw the ball. He infamed Verona".

Yesterday the racist choirs had provoked a harsh reaction from the athlete and the temporary suspension of the race.

Balotelli: "You are little beings. Wake up ignorant"
"My friends have nothing to do with football ... You are implying social and historical situations greater than you, little beings. Here you are going crazy ...". Mario Balotelli thus intervenes on Instagram, returning to the episode of the racist choirs of Verona and commenting on today's statements by the head of Hellas Luca Castellini. "You wake up ignorant you are the ruin. But when Mario did, and I guarantee you he will still score goals for Italy. He is fine with you? The 'people' so should be struck down by society, not just football. Just send it down now, just let it be , enough, enough ", writes the Brescia striker.

Figc prosecutor: "They were 20 to make buuh and racist howls, the rest clapped"
"There were twenty to make buuh and racist howls, the rest of the Veronese curve instead applauded Balotelli": sources of the Prosecutor's Office refer to ANSA, as well as to the sports judge in charge of making a decision on the episode, the perception had of the discriminatory dispute in the against the Brescia striker by a group of Verona supporters, yesterday in Bentegodi.

Mayor of Verona: "I reiterate no racism, no pillory"
"It seems that the sentence has already been written. It is objectively unacceptable what is happening to our city", says the mayor of Verona, Federico Sboarina, returning to the case of racism denounced by Mario Balotelli. "I reiterate - says Sboarina - I was at the stadium yesterday and when Balotelli kicked the ball off everyone's feeling was astonishing. No one could explain why". "Therefore - he adds - there can only be an assumption that it does not exist, because at the stadium there were no racist choirs, a fan and a city are put to shame".

The Bishop: Verona is not that of the stadium
"Verona is not the one you see at the stadium". The bishop of Verona, Giuseppe Zenti, says this to ANSA about the controversy over the Scala fans in the Balotelli case. Zenti, while making the premise of not knowing the Bentegodi environment, says he believes that the answers must follow the path of justice. However, he underlines that Verona has always been "a welcoming, inclusive city, rich in voluntary associations", which "does not deserve to be muddied".