Soccer Match Racist Jeers Stops AC Milan - Roma Match After Roma Fans Racist Jeers Towards Mario Balotelli

A soccer match racist jeers affected the play on the pitch when the referee briefly stopped play in the second half of the AC Milan - Roma after Roma fan's racist jeers towards Milan striker, Mario Balotelli.

Reuters is reporting the AC Milan - AS Roma match on Sunday, which ended in a 0-0 draw, was stopped early in the second half after the racist jeers directed at star AC Milan striker, Mario Balotelli. Balotelli is originally from Sicily, but was born to parents from Ghana. 

Roma's 36-year-old captain Francsco Totti and another Milan player from Ghana,  Sulley Muntari, were both dismissed during the emotion-soaked match-up where racist jeers directed at Balotelli briefly stopped the match early in the second half. 

Milan needed to beat Roma to clinch third place and a chance in the Champions League qualifying rounds, but after the first 40 minutes of play, Muntari was sent off.

Muntari was booked, then lost his temper and grabbed the referees arm as his Milan teammates protested, which left the referee with no choice but to send the player off the pitch. 

After Muntari was sent off, Roma continued to go back and defend despite their one-man advantage, but that's when the match was halted for racist jeers directed at the black-skinned striker from AC Milan, Mario Balotelli. 

A soccer match of racist jeers forced the referee to stop play early in the second half after Roma fans taunted Balotelli. Racist jeers during a match are now outlawed  by the Italian Federation. 

The guidelines set down by the Italian federation and the government's sports security watchdog, meant a warning was announced over the public address system about the racist jeers during the match before play resumed. 

The racist jeers towards Balotelli forced the referees hand as the match got more contested and the racist jeers reached a crescendo in the tight, early second half. 

Balotelli, for his part, has been cast as a troubling footballer by the media, and Jose Mourinho once described him as "unmanageable." In 2010 alone, Balotelli and friends fired air pistols in the open in Milan's Piazza della Repubblica, and he was photographed in the company of two reputed Italian mobsters. 

This wasn't the first time racist jeers were directed at Balotelli. In an April 2009 match with Juventus, when he played for Inter Milan, Balotelli scored the only goal for Inter in a 1-1 tie. But Balotelli experienced racist jeers from Juventus fans throughout the match. Inter owner, Massimo Moratti, said he would have pulled his team off the field if he'd been present. Juventus Chairman, Giobanni Cobolli Gigli, also condemned the racist jeers during the match and Juventus was given a one game home-fan ban because of the incident.