media which appeared to contain anti-Semitic and racist references.
Balotelli, 24, quickly deleted the post from his Instagram page of
Nintendo computer game character Super Mario.
Before his apology, the Italian had tweeted to deny the text of the
post was offensive.
The Football Association has asked Balotelli for his observations and
given him until 18:00 GMT on Friday to respond, while Liverpool say
they will speak to the player.
A spokesman for anti-discrimination group Kick It Out told BBC Sport:
"Kick It Out has been made aware of Mario Balotelli's Instagram post
by a Twitter user and has now forwarded it on to the FA to look into
the matter."
The picture posted had an image of Super Mario with the heading "Don't
be a racist!"
The text read: "Be like Mario, he's an Italian plumber, created by
Japanese people, who speaks English and looks like a Mexican."
It finished: "He jumps like a black man and grabs coins like a Jew."
Balotelli forwarded on a picture produced by someone else
Responding to criticism on Twitter, Balotelli tweeted: "My Mom is
Jewish so all of you shut up please."
He also described reposting the image as "my unlucky moment".
However, he later wrote: "I apologise if I've offended anyone.
"The post was meant to be anti-racist with humour. I now understand
that out of context it may have the opposite effect.
"Not all Mexicans have a moustache, not all black people jump high and
not all Jewish people love money.
"I used a cartoon done by somebody else because it has Super Mario and
I thought it was funny and not offensive. Again, I'm sorry."
A Liverpool spokesman told BBC Sport: "We are aware of the posting
which has since been promptly deleted by the player. We will be
speaking to the player about the issue."
Speaking after Tuesday's 3-1 win at Leicester,manager Brendan Rodgers
said: "I don't know hardly anything about it, I have been busy getting
the team ready for this game.
"I will probably find out more about it."
Jewish Leadership Council chief executive Simon Johnson, a former FA
executive, said Balotelli should face action.
"We abhor all forms of racism, wherever it is found," Johnson told the
Daily Telegraph."We call upon the FA to investigate this offensive
social media post and to take action if appropriate if we are to
succeed in kicking racism out of football."
Under the FA's social media guidelines, the minimum ban for
race-related breaches of rules is five games.
Sports media trainer Alec Wilkinson told BBC World News that some
players have the wrong attitude towards social media.
"There are those that are famous, earn lots of money, with a sky-high
profile, who think 'What can you teach me? I can say what I like, it
won't damage me,'" he said.
"We spend a lot of time explaining to them it's good for them to take
the pressure off themselves, to understand how the media works, how
you can offend people."
Burnley are among the clubs which issue players with a code of conduct
governing social media usage, but their media manager Darren Bentley
says a common-sense approach is paramount.
"We sit them down at the start of the season, but we don't constantly
hammer the message home," he said. "We treat them like adults, not
kids."
In September, Merseyside Police investigated racist remarks made to
Balotelli on Twitterafter he posted a message during Manchester
United's 5-3 defeat by Leicester City.
--BBC
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