Ian Ayre bemoans social media problems, claiming he’d ‘love to’ ban it at Liverpool

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Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre would ‘love to’ ban social media at Liverpool…

Liverpool’s chief executive Ian Ayre has bemoaned the club’s recent issues surrounding striker Mario Balotelli, and has told reporters that he would ‘love to’ ban social media.

Balotelli was charged on Friday by the Football Association for a controversial Instagram post that appeared to contain anti-Semitic and racist references.

The 24-year-old reposted an image of computer game character Super Mario, with whom he shares a nick name. The post included the words “jumps like a black man and grabs coins like a Jew,” and he has since apologised.

Talking to the BBC, a frustrated Ayre said of the situation: “Given the choice we’d love to keep all our players away from social media because it really is a problem.”

“I can honestly say there isn’t any more we could do as a club to try to educate our players around this but it still rears its head at least once a season – probably at every club in some form or another.”

Balotelli, who is currently sidelined by a groin injury sustained on international duty, could face a two-game ban for his latest misdemeanant, continuing a miserable campaign for the out-of-form summer signing.

“One of the problems that all footballers have had for many a year is that they have too much time to kill,” added Ayre. “In that downtime they seem to put these crazy sort of messages up. It is definitely an issue.

“I don’t think we have got to the point where we would stop people doing it but we certainly have a very stringent policy that all of our players sign. If they step out of line then we punish them.”

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