I have logged a complaint with the BBC and urge you all to do the same at:
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complain-online/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complain-online/</a>
My complaint:
"I wish to complain in the strongest terms about the poor, biased, nasty punditry and commentary of the England v Italy match last Sunday.
The punditry of Alan Hansen and Alan Shearer and commentary of Guy Mowbray and Mark Lawrenson was disgraceful and their victimisation of Mario Balotelli was nothing short of a character assassination. It could be classed as bullying and victimisation. Hansen referred to Mario Balotelli as “stupid Mario” and said that he had won nothing, to which fellow pundit, Lee Dixon, replied “The Championship”. Hansen’s opined that City only won the Premier League because Balotelli got banned after being sent off at Arsenal. The facts say otherwise. Mario Balotelli provided the pass for the winning goal that sealed Manchester City’s Premier League Title on 13th May 2012 (he also scored 13 goals to that Championship). He's had a very succesful career so far: a Champions League medal, 3 Italian Seria A medals, 1 Premier league medal, 1 Italian Cup medal, 1 UEFA Supercup. All before the age of 22.
Lawrenson peevishly joined in with the character assassination. Mowbray said “Mario is having a moan” (but ignored all Rooney’s moans), and Lawrenson replied, saying of Balotelli “if his brains were petrol he wouldn’t get out of the garage”. It's not the first time that Hansen and Lawrenson in particular have stuck the boot into Balotelli. How standards have fallen. At very least the positions of Hansen, Shearer, Lawrenson in particular should be reviewed."