Juventus have been fined 20,000 euros rather than receive a stadium ban for an offensive chant their fans sing about Inter Milan’s black striker Mario Balotelli.

As songs go, it is pretty insulting. “Se saltelli, muore Balotelli” (If you jump up and down, Balotelli will die).

However, the big question is whether the song is racist. The Italian league has decided it is offensive and incites violence but has not classified it as racist, hence the fine and no heftier punishment. Many Italians disagree and say the Juve fans would not sing such a song if he was white.

Of course last season Juve were forced to play a game behind close doors after home fans sang “a black Italian does not exist” at Palermo-born Balotelli in a game with champions Inter.

Most Premier League fans will know of an especially nasty chant aimed at Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger while there are several English songs about getting a gun to “shoot some (most hated rival club) scum”.

In England, fans largely get away with these sorts of chants. But should they go unpunished given there are children in the stadiums? It hardly helps build the fabric of society. Then again, if attempts were made to ban all such chants, would some of the wonderful match-day banter we all enjoy get lost?

The new Juve chant is probably a bit more insulting than the usual taunts and it is towards an individual rather than a club.

Balotelli, 19, has annoyed rival fans and even his own coach Jose Mourinho with his “me against the world” attitude this term, but no one deserves such abuse.

PHOTO: Inter Milan’s Mario Balotelli eyes the ball during their Italian Serie A soccer match against Catania at the San Siro stadium in Milan October 24, 2009. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo

Jose Antonio Reyes has some work to do to win over Atletico Madrid’s hardcore fans judging by the reception he received on Tuesday, when he came on as a late substitute at the Calderon in their 2-0 Champions League play-off win over Panathinaikos.

The tie was already over by the time Reyes was called up to replace Simao with four minutes left — Atletico won the away leg 3-2 — but he was met with a barrage of whistles from around the stadium.

“Reyes! Fuera del Calderon!” (Reyes! Leave the Calderon!) was the chant that came up from Atletico’s radical ‘Frente’ fans behind the goal opposite where I was sitting.

Spanish media also reported fans shouting “Reyes! Hijo de Puta! Muerete!” (Reyes! Son of a whore! Die!) and other abuse.

His first touch was understandably tentative, though a surging run soon after had some fans around me standing and applauding, while others continued to whistle.

Why this treatment? Well he was bought from city rivals Real Madrid after helping them win the Primera Liga title in 2007.

His presentation in the Calderon, which I also attended, saw some fans shouting abuse at him then. He did little to win them over that first season making 26 league appearances, failing to score, and complaining about not being in the starting XI enough.

Reyes played last year on loan with Benfica, but the Portuguese side failed to come up with the money to make the move permanent, so with no other interesting offers on the table, the former Arsenal man is back in Madrid.

After Tuesday’s game, his new coach Abel Resino defended him: “It’s the start of the season and we are going to try to change all this. Reyes is an Atletico player, he works hard, and we will try to help him make his peace with the fans.”

Reyes, who turns 26 next week, is clearly a talented player and has shown that at Sevilla, Arsenal and Real Madrid, albeit inconsistently.

Atletico season-ticket holders I spoke to after the game agreed the treatment he received was harsh, and that with the shortage of creative talent in the side’s midfield it was crucial to have a player like Reyes on board.

The club need him but the only way he will win over doubters is with some strong performances. It remains to be seen whether he has the maturity to ride out the abuse and put in the hard graft necessary.

PHOTO: Jose Reyes (L) fights for the ball while at Benfica, April 19, 2009. REUTERS/Hugo Correia

The days when the details of transfer negotiations were closely guarded secrets could be coming to an end with the advent of the ‘Twitter transfer’.

On Wednesday, U.S. national team striker Jozy Altidore all but announced a move to English Premier League Hull City on the micro-blogging site, keeping his fans updated while Hull remained silent.

Altidore, who is owned by Spanish club Villarreal, alerted followers to a potential move on Tuesday when he informed them he would be up early on Wednesday morning for a flight to England.

After details about his flight and weather on arrival he held back from announcing the deal but gave the game away by posting info of his first game.

“First match is against Chelsea subject to a work permit *wink* *wink* lol thanks for the support and love keep it coming,” he wrote.

While Altidore’s upbeat updates are unlikely to upset anyone, England striker Darren Bent apologised to Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy last month about comments on Twitter relating to his move to Sunderland.

Bent aimed an expletive at Levy and said, “Do I wanna go Hull City? NO. Do I wanna go Stoke? NO. Do I wanna go Sunderland? YES.”

The forward’s wish was finally granted on Wednesday when he completed a move from Spurs to Sunderland for an initial fee of 10 million pounds ($16.98 million).

There was not a tweet out of Bent, though: his account was closed down after the dispute with Spurs.

Twitter appears harmless fun for many, many sportspeople — golfers, tennis players, cyclists, NBA and NFL players — who send snippets of their daily routine out to their followers. The problem, as the Bent case shows, comes when things aren’t going well for the individual.

There is a potential minefield involved with sportspeople broadcasting their thoughts at will — contract negotiations, dressing room disputes, personal problems are all topics that team and PR people would probably hope do not get broadcast to the world.

Those sportspeople using Twitter — and there are thousands of them — seem to regard it is a cool and easy way to keep in touch with their fans. So how can the control-freaks control other than to ban Twitter use? And that’s not going to happen, is it?

PHOTO: Jozy Altidore of the U.S. celebrates after scoring a goal during their Confederations Cup semi-final soccer match against Spain at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein June 24, 2009. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen

Former Tottenham Hotspur defender Gary Mabbutt said recently that he never swore once during his 19-year career that ended in 1998.

It’s ironic, for nowhere is swearing more prevalent than in soccer. Over the years foul language has cemented itself as part of football culture.

The unforgettable Brian Clough, in keeping with his eccentric ways, once decided to erect signs around Nottingham Forest’s City Ground reading, “Gentlemen. No swearing please! Brian.”

Old Big ‘Ead threatened to resign (in jest, of course) if the fans didn’t adhere to his requests, but they merely responded with a cheeky sign of their own… “Brian. No leaving please! The Gentlemen.”

That was 20 years ago when hooliganism was a big problem in the game.

However, nowadays language at football grounds is often still foul and abusive — both on and off the pitch. Bearing in mind stadiums have become a lot more family friendly, what kind of an example must this be setting and shouldn’t the FA be doing more to stop it?

My Reuters colleague Mike Collett told me last year about his experience at a Millwall game, where three generations of the same family were repeatedly using offensive language.

As ticket prices have soared, fans are increasingly arguing for their right to voice their opinion. But should they watch the language they use?

PHOTO: Manchester united and england striker Wayne Rooney has often been caught on camera swearing during matches. Of course, he is not alone. October 25, 2008. REUTERS/Phil Noble

Amongst all the talk of football and footballers losing touch with the common fan, supporters in Italy are fighting back.

There have been at least four recent incidents where fans have protested against potential signings they did not like. Juve supporters failed to stop Monday’s purchase of Christian Poulsen but did prevent a bid for Inter Milan’s Dejan Stankovic.

Christian Vieri has been abused on his return to Atalanta and Fiorentina fans halted a move for Lazio’s Luciano Zauri.

Read more here.

PHOTO: Christian Poulsen while on national duty with Denmark in 2007. REUTERS/Scanpix Denmark

As a reporter at Euro 2008 you’re only as good as the team or teams you are covering and after Sweden and Romania’s elimination from the finals, I was the first of the Reuters team to pack my bags and go home.

It was disappointment tinged with relief as the call came after Sweden’s defeat by Russia. Exhaustion was beginning to catch up with me, so my own bed in Brussels was a very attractive offer.

So what did I think about Euro 2008? It was very enjoyable. I met lots of people, learned a lot and crated many memories … oh yes, the soccer was ok too.

Two of the most interesting, but bizarre, lessons I learned were:

Firstly, if you leave the electronic key to your hotel bedroom next to your mobile phone in your pocket, it won’t work when you get back to your hotel at 1am and you have to wake up the owner to let you in.

The second thing is that first class and business class mean two very different things in Austria and Switzerland when you travel.

Let me explain.

On a train trip to Innsbruck to cover Sweden’s defeat to Spain, I was sat next to Dimitris Varotis and his 18 year-old son Dante. As you might expect by their names, they are Greek, or American of Greek extraction to be exact. They had both travelled from Pittsburgh to watch Euro 2008, taking in Spain and Portugal’s games. “The Greeks are boring and have had their day,” Dante, who prefers soccer to baseball and American football, told me. Soccer truly is a global game.

My insight into Austrian and Swiss levels of travel came on the return journey. Amid a packed first class section, a Japanese photographer, who had sat beside myself and my new U.S. friends on the outward journey, recognised me an invited me to sit with him and four of his photographer friends. in a very comfortable, Orient Express style booth.

But then a burly train inspector came up and told us to get out. “Business class is not first class in our country,” he snapped.

The five photographers looked ashamed, angry and upset all at once. The inspector then demanded 50 euros from them to stay put. They said they could not afford that. I intervened and in my limited German pointed to the small print on our accreditation, which was in English and which I had for some reason read beforehand, that stated we were in fact allowed to travel in the compartment once it was not an overnight sleeper.

The inspector quickly moved on with his tail between his legs and I became an instant hero in Japan.

Darren Ennis, Brussels

PHOTO: A Sweden fan reacts after defeat by Russia in Innsbruck, June 18, 2008. REUTERS/Michael Dalder

This time last year I blogged from the Champions League final in Athens, mainly about the oddly circuitous routes taken by Liverpool fans just to get there.

My plan was to do the same from Moscow, but so far fans are pretty thin on the ground. With hotel prices starting at about 800 euros a night, it seems the vast majority of fans are going to come in on the day and fly back pretty much as soon as the game is finished.

At Red Square this morning there was a longish queue to get up close and personal with the trophy itself (or perhaps a replica, who knows…) but so far there’s none of the loud and beery atmosphere of Istanbul or Athens. Even the GUM department store on Red Square was empty, with the Manchester United shirts on sale at 3,150 roubles a pop not finding any buyers.

One story doing the rounds here is that the stadium might not even be full for the final. As a Russian friend put it: “Why would we want to go out to watch a match between two English teams at midnight?”

I did get one offer of a ticket from a Russian guy on the street. He quoted me a 1,000 euros, but his heart wasn’t really in it.

I’m sure it’ll all get livelier tonight and I’ll update here with stories from fans as soon as I can find some. In the mean time, send us your thoughts on the final…

Kevin Fylan, Moscow