It should be quite clear that if he does have to leave - and sadly it might come to that - it will be almost entirely due to the quite unjustified hounding he is receiving.
It is quite clear that there are some (many?) in the Man.City fanbase - at least those who post on this forum - who would actually want that to happen.
Whatever the reasons, double standards abound in football.
If it were a player such as Alan Shearer or Paul Scholes who had been guilty of the possibly intended stamp in the Spurs match, it would have been a very very good bet that the FA would have done nothing, giving the player the "benefit of the doubt". Because they of course are iconic figures who are supposed to represent the best of British football/sport/character - courageous, hard working, sportrmanlike etc.etc.
Yet I remember Shearer kicking the head of an opposing player, with a much more obvious intent than Balo's stamp. Nothing was done, FA decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Player's such as Mario will never get that from the FA or the Media.
The media have an ambiguous attitude to players such as Balo. On the one hand they make them into hate figures, constantly producing lists of their "moments of shame" (see the Sun today - I don't buy the rag, but read it in my local cafe). On the other they really need them to sell papers, because an EPL composed entirely of Scholes type personalities would be much less interesting.
And it seems there are some on this forum who want to see City represented only by Shearer/Scholes types. If more of this hounding goes on they may get their wish.