Mario Balotelli has escaped a potential nine-match ban after the FA ruled it will not take retrospective action for his tackle on Alex Song.
There were fears the Manchester City and Italy striker would receive a huge suspension using video evidence for his leg-breaker challenge on the Arsenal star.
This evening the FA ruled it could not take retrospective action because the incident was seen by at least one of the four match officials.
Mario Balotelli has escaped a potential nine-match ban after the FA ruled it will not take retrospective action for his tackle on Alex Song.
There were fears the Manchester City and Italy striker would receive a huge suspension using video evidence for his leg-breaker challenge on the Arsenal star.
This evening the FA ruled it could not take retrospective action because the incident was seen by at least one of the four match officials.
Therefore Balotelli only has to deal with a three-match ban for his red card later in the game.
This could help the errant Italy forward’s bid to stay in the squad for Euro 2012, especially after he publicly apologised to Cesare Prandelli and Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini.