Mario Balotelli Racially Abused on Twitter, Police Investigating

Liverpool's Mario Balotelli was racially abused on Twitter on Sunday after he mocked Manchester United, and the police are reportedly looking into the matter.    

Following the Red Devils' 5-3 loss at the hands of Leicester City, Balotelli posted a tweet that didn't sit well with a number of fans, according to the Daily Mirror's Chris Richards. Here's that post:

Several supposed fans responded by attacking Balotelli's skin colour, making monkey references and worse. Some Twitter users jumped to his defence and captured screenshots of the posts before passing them on to the authorities.

Kick It Out, a football equality group, confirmed they were also planning on getting the police involved, per Richards' report. The Merseyside force confirmed via Twitter they were investigating the matter:

Balotelli moved from the Serie A to Liverpool during the summer of 2014, with some pundits wondering whether Italy's bad reputation when it comes to racism in their top leagues was at the core of his desire to leave the peninsula.

Di Marzio's David Amoyal was one of many calling out the people racially abusing Balotelli:

Spanish football journalist Rafael Hernandez believed there was nothing wrong with Balotelli's tweet about the Mancunians:

One can certainly argue Balotelli should have made the smart decision and not sent out the initial tweet. Controversy has followed him in the past, and he's still trying to restore his reputation in the Premier League.

None of that justifies any form of racist response, however, and the fact certain fans are still quick to resort to such vile insults in 2014 shows racism is still a big problem in football, whether it's in the Italian Serie A or the Premier League.

Police are looking into the matter, and we can only hope the guilty parties will be caught and punished accordingly.