Mario Balotelli to be fined for swapping shirts at half-time in Liverpool's defeat to Real Madrid
Football
By
Mirror
| Oct 23, 2014
Liverpool: Mario Balotelli will be fined after his “disgraceful” half-time shirt swap.
The Italian was slammed by Kop legends Phil Thompson and Graeme Souness for exchanging jerseys with Real star Pepe at half-time, with his side 3-0 down.
European Cup winning captain Phil Thompson said the swap was “disgraceful and disrespectful”.
And Anfield great Graeme Souness blasted: “Don’t get me started on him again. Call me a dinosaur, but I expect so much more.
“In my day we would have nailed him for some of the ways he reacts on the pitch.
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“If you play with him, you tackle someone win the ball and look up and he’s hiding somewhere.”
£16m striker Balotelli was substituted at half time and stayed in the dressing room for the ENTIRE second half, watching his team-mates struggle to contain rampant Real on a TV monitor.
Reds boss Brendan Rodgers insisted afterwards that swapping shirts at half time is unacceptable at Liverpool and left no doubt that he will hit the player in the pocket.
Rodgers was furious last December when Mamadou Sakho and Philippe Coutinho swapped shirts with Chelsea players at the interval.
Both players were fined and when asked if Balotelli would face similar punishment the Ulsterman said: “Yes, and it’s exactly the same. We had an incident last year and it was something that was dealt with internally. It’s not something that I stand for, if you want to do that do it at the end of the game, and I will deal with it.”
Rodgers stressed that the first thing he demands from his players is effort – clearly implying the Italian offered none. “It was purely tactical,” the manager said of the half time substitution in which the Balotelli was replaced by Adam Lallana.
“I felt we needed more movement centrally to occupy the centre halves. Adam came on and he was tireless.
“For us at Liverpool that’s the minimum here, you need to work and press, and Adam came on and did that really well, and Raheem Sterling, even in a position that was alien to him, worked incredibly hard.”