Merseyside Police is reportedly investigating racist abuse received by Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli on Twitter after he tweeted 'Man Utd...LOL' after the crushing 5-3 defeat met by Manchester United at the hands of Leicester on Sunday.
The 24-year-old's post was retweeted more than 150,000 times and met with a long thread of racist and abusive messages and prompting a deluge of negative replies with some Twitter users using the term "monkey".
The posts later disappeared, reported the BBC.
"We can confirm officers are looking into offensive comments made on Twitter about Mario Balotelli earlier today," Merseyside Police, the force for Liverpool, said on Twitter.
Anti-discrimination group, ‘Kick It Out’, extended their support to Balotelli and urged social media users to report such abuses to the authorities. They also reported the incident to police via their online reporting facility.
They said that they were alerted about the racist tweets sent to the Italian striker by other social media users.
Balotelli, who played in Liverpool's 3-1 defeat by West Ham on Saturday, has been singled out for racist abuse in the past.
La Liga: Barca's Neymar, Rakitic doubtful for Malaga match
Barcelona pair Neymar and Ivan Rakitic have picked up minor injuries that could sideline them for Wednesday's La Liga game at Malaga, the league leaders said on Monday.
Brazil forward Neymar hurt an ankle and had to be substituted early in the second half of Sunday's 5-0 win at Levante, while Croatia midfielder Rakitic has a bruised foot and both were having treatment.
How the injuries develop "will determine when they can return to training", Barca said on their website (www.fcbarcelona.es).
Barca are the only team to have won their opening four La Liga matches this season and top the standings on 12 points, two ahead of Sevilla.
After playing Malaga on Wednesday, Barca host Granada on Saturday before playing at Paris St Germain in the Champions League on September 30.
Florenzi booked for hugging grandmother as Roma win again
AS Roma striker Alessandro Florenzi was booked for running into the stands to hug his 82-year-old grandmother after scoring in their 2-0 win over Cagliari in Serie A on Sunday.
Napoli's troubles continued when they suffered their second consecutive 1-0 defeat in the league, this time at Udinese, and substitute Jasmin Kurtic scored Fiorentina's first league goal of the season to give them a 1-0 win at Atalanta.
Inter Milan defender Nemanja Vidic, sent off on his Serie A debut, gave away a third minute goal at Palermo after a blunder but his side recovered for a 1-1 draw.
Roma, following up a 5-1 drubbing of CSKA Moscow in the Champions League on Wednesday, needed only a quarter of an hour to polish off the Sardinians and maintain their 100 percent record in all competitions this season.
Florenzi set up Roma's opening goal in the 10th minute when his low cross was turned in at the far post by Mattia Destro.
The hosts extended their lead three minutes later after Gervinho mis-hit his shot but Florenzi was on hand to fire in from the follow-up.
The 23-year-old celebrated by running to hug his grandmother, who Italian media said was making her first visit to the Stadio Olimpico, and was booked when he returned to the pitch, one of only two yellow cards in the match.
"I'll happily pay any fine for Florenzi," Roma coach Rudi Garcia told reporters.
"The hug was the sort of image that we want to see."
Roma, who have a game at Parma on Wednesday, were happy to conserve energy after that and strolled through the rest of the game.
Roma and Juventus, who won 1-0 at AC Milan on Saturday, are the only teams with nine points from their opening three games. Zdenek Zeman's Cagliari have only one point. Verona are two behind them with seven points after winning 1-0 at Torino with a second-half strike by Artur Ionita.
Napoli lose to Udinese
Danilo's second-half goal gave Udinese a 1-0 win over Napoli who produced another disjointed performance after coach Rafael Benitez again rotated his squad. They have only three points from three games.
Fiorentina also looked pedestrian, with Germany striker Mario Gomez giving another off-colour performance, but they were saved by one moment of inspiration from Kurtic.
The Slovenian midfielder collected a pass from Matias Fernandez, turned and scored with a low left-foot shot from 25 metres which went in off the foot of the post in the 58th minute, two minutes after he had come on.
Former Manchester United defender Vidic, returning from suspension after his red card against Torino, had another nightmare moment as he gifted Palermo an early goal in Sicily.
The Serb lost possession in his own area to Franco Vazquez who took full advantage to poke his team in front, the first goal Inter have conceded in the league this season.
Mateo Kovacic spared Vidic's blushes just before halftime when he side-footed an equaliser from the edge of the penalty area, leaving Inter with five points from three games.
A late goal from Chile forward Mauricio Pinilla and outstanding performance from goalkeeper Mattia Perin gave Genoa a 1-0 win at home to 10-man Lazio, their first win of the season.
His goal came shortly after Netherlands defender Stefan de Vrij had been sent off for a second bookable offence for Lazio.
"How much is Perin worth? He is priceless," said Genoa coach Gian Piero Gasperini.
Antonio Cassano scored twice to help Parma come from behind and beat Chievo 3-2 while Sassuolo, thumped 7-0 at Inter Milan one week ago, drew 0-0 at home to Sampdoria.
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