Man City striker Balotelli escapes FA action

The FA have announced that Mario Balotelli will not face any further disciplinary action after a number of reckless challenges in Manchester City’s 1-0 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday.

The Italy international was sent off in the last minute after a rash challenge on Bacary Sagna, but escaped punishment for a high tackle on Alex Song in the first half.

The FA, despite calls from the media for Balotelli to be punished, have decided that no action will be taken against the City forward.

“Retrospective action in relation to the incident involving Mario Balotelli of Manchester City and Alex Song of Arsenal, which occurred in the 20th minute of Sunday’s game, will not be taken,” an FA statement confirmed.

“Where at least one of the officials has seen the coming together of players retrospective action is not taken, regardless of whether they have seen the full extent of the challenge.

“Retrospective action can only be taken in scenarios where none of the match officials saw the players coming together. The normal scenarios in which retrospective action is taken are for ‘off the ball’ incidents.

“Retrospective action was introduced for off the ball incidents where there was no contest for possession and could not be deemed to be re-refereeing an incident.

“In agreement with FIFA, this is how ‘not seen’ incidents are dealt with retrospectively in England. It is a policy that is agreed with all football stakeholders,” the statement concluded.

Meanwhile, Mirror Football have reported that AC Milan and Inter are ready to battle it out to bring Balotelli back to Italy in the summer.

The troubled forward has been identified as the man to lead an Inter revival, whilst the current Serie A champions are eager to freshen up their attacking options due to Alexandre Pato’s drop in fitness and form; both are ready to splash £20 million on Balotelli.