Ligue 1 club Nice have claimed that Mario Balotelli was booked during Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Dijon for protesting to the referee about alleged racist abuse from the home crowd.
The Italy striker was shown a yellow card by Nicolas Rainville after pointing out the reaction from supporters to him missing a chance during the second half at the Stade Gaston-Gerard.
A message on Nice's Twitter feed during the game read: "In the meantime, Mario Balotelli has inherited a yellow card after... getting annoyed with racist insults from the public."
Dijon goalkeeper Baptiste Reynet was subsequently quoted by Sky Sports News as saying: "I told Mario that I had not heard racist chanting but he replied to me that there were some. Two or three supporters apparently provoked him."
Club manager Olivier Dall'Oglio added: "That is the first time that you hear about something like this at the Gaston-Gerard.
"We have a lot of players of colour and foreigners in our team, and we are very happy to have them. There has never been a problem with racism here. If these taunts existed, they are completely out of order... I didn't hear anything."
Former Liverpool and Manchester City striker Balotelli spoke out in January 2017 about monkey chants aimed at him by an opposing fan from Bastia, who confessed and was banned by the club.
Giuseppe Labellarte
