Racism has been a big subject during the Euro 2012 tournament and it seems it has reared its head again. Italian paper Gazzetta dello sport has depicted Mario Balotelli as King kong climbing Big ben. The paper went out on Sunday  and the paper said it was meant to show Balotelli scaling a historic English landmark.

“Mario’s such an important person in Italian football,’’ said a spokesman for the diversity organisation Kick It Out. “Aspiring players in Italy who want to follow in his footsteps could wonder what support they will have when they get to his level when they see cartoons like that. It is not the first time we have seen this sort of depiction of Mario and we think the media have a responsibility. How do they think they can portray him like that?’’

Gazzetta acknowledged its mistake, saying: “It wasn’t our cartoonist’s best product. In these times we need a bit more moderation, caution and good taste. But we have always fought against racism and condemned booing against Balotelli as unacceptable.”