Mario Balotelli apologises over post that appeared to contain racist and anti-Semitic references.

 Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli apologised on Tuesday for posting a message on Instagram that appeared to contain racist and anti-Semitic references and which has sparked a  Football Association investigation .

The Italy international reposted an image of the Nintendo video game character 'Super Mario' on the photo-sharing website that contained the phrase "jumps like a black man and grabs coins like a Jew".
The post was titled "Don't be a racist" and continued: "Be like Mario. He's an Italian plumber, created by Japanese people, who speaks English and looks like a Mexican." The offending phrase followed.
Balotelli deleted the post following criticism from other social media users, but after the FA confirmed it was looking into the matter, he wrote on Twitter: "I apologize if I've offended anyone.
"The post was meant to be anti-racist with humour. I now understand that out of context may have the opposite effect. Not all Mexicans have moustache, not all black people jump high and not all Jewish people love money.
"I used a cartoon done by someone else because it has Super Mario and I thought it was funny and not offensive. Again, I'm sorry."