Mario Balotelli to be fined by Liverpool for swapping shirts with Pepe at Half-time

Mario Balotelli followed up his horrendous first half performance against Real Madrid with a shirt swap with opposition defender Pepe while trailing 0-3 in a move that has angered Liverpool fans all over. There were no goals in the second half as the score stayed 3-0 in favour of the visitors with a goal from Cristiano Ronaldo and a brace from Karim Benzema.

The Italian on the other hand failed to even have a shot on target adding another disappointing 45 minutes following his £16 million move from AC Milan in the summer. He is set to be fined by the club according to a report in the Telegraph after a diktat regarding the situation had been laid down by the boss in December last year.

A screengrab of Balotelli and Pepe exchanging shirts just after the half-time whistle (Surce: SkySports)

Here is a video of the incident:

Managers’ view

His manager Brendan Rodgers was not too pleased with the forward’s latest antics.

“We had an incident with a player last year and that was something we dealt with internally,”

“It is not something I stand for. If you want to do that you do it at the end of the game. It is something I will deal with tomorrow.”

Rodgers was referring to the incident when Mamadou Sakho swapped shirts with Samuel Eto'o during the 2-1 defeat at Chelsea in December last year.

You can watch the Sakho-Eto’o shirt swap video below:

The Northern Irishman had clearly spelt out that Liverpool players should not be doing this anymore.

Opposition manager Carlo Ancelotti held a different view though.

“It is normal in football to swap shirts. Sometimes they do it at half-time with the opponent. I do not see a problem.”

Past incidents

Another infamous incident occured in November 2012 when Arsenal left-back Andre Santos became a bit of a villain in the fans’ eyes when he asked for former Gunner Robin van Persie’s shirt during a game at Old Trafford. Theo Walcott was smart enough not to repeat the mistake a few months later.