Mario Balotelli was the target of booing.

It was a night for face paint, Mexican waves and singing along to trumpeters.

But for much of the Italian sports media, Tuesday’s World Cup qualifier was also an opportunity for Maltese football fans to bring out the racist within.

“An infallible Mario amid anthem boos and racist howls,” wrote La Gazzetta dello Sport and Il Corriere dello Sport likened the booing of striker Mario Balotelli to the racist noises condemned by Uefa.

The Corriere della Sera’s correspondent noted that Ta’ Qali national stadium “might be small but its defects are those of larger ones”.

“Those boos might not have been exclusively racist,” wrote La Repubblica, “but only Balotelli’s lasted 90 minutes”.

A minority of fans booed Balotelli and sang some of those chants but they had nothing to do with skin colour or race

Local fans started booing Balotelli before kick-off and they didn’t let up until he was subbed in the 80th minute.

In the second half, some of those boos turned to chants against the Milan striker. “Balotelli figlio di p****** (Balotelli son of a...)” came the cries.

These heckles, coupled with fans jeering during the Italian national anthem, had the Italian press reaching for the “racist” card.

The Gazzetta dello Sport touched upon local disdain for African migrants and wondered: “Could it be that, here too, on the boundary between the global south and old Europe, the black man still elicits fear?”

Not so, according to Southend Core stand fan leader Louis Agius.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous. There were no racist chants. A minority of fans booed Balotelli and sang some of those chants but they had nothing to do with skin colour or race,” he said.

What brought them on, then?

“Balotelli is a divisive character, he gets abuse from the fans everywhere he goes,” Mr Agius said.

“We tried to shut them up but they weren’t having it. It got a bit heated at one point and I had some beer flung at me,” he added.

Another fan seated at the Ta’ Qali stadium south end felt Mr Agius was downplaying the scale.

“Pretty much everyone around me was picking on Balotelli”, Franco Attard said.

However, he agreed there was nothing racial about the abuse: “I certainly didn’t hear any monkey noises or anything that indicated racism.”

“It seemed to me that many fans at the stadium would usually support Italian teams, so they were just mimicking behaviour you’d hear over there.”

Officials at Italian clubs Juventus, Inter and Roma could vouch for that, with all three having been on the receiving end of fines for anti-Balotelli chants sung by their fans.

Balotelli has become something of a favoured target for rival Serie A fans and although some of the abuse he has received is undoubtedly racist – monkey noises or fans holding up large inflatable bananas – many fans insist their jeers are a reflection of dislike for the player’s attitude.

The irony of Italian football journalists recoiling in horror at chants popularised by Italian fans themselves did not escape Mr Agius.

“Italian papers would do well to look at what’s going on in their own football stadiums rather than exaggerate about what happened in ours,” he complained.

In the 2011-2012 season, 59 racist incidents were reported in Italian football stadiums, half during top-tier matches.

Xenophobia in Italian football is not unknown. Back in 2001, former Italian national Fabio Liverani was greeted in Rome with racist graffiti and French World Cup winner Lilian Thuram has written about the monkey gestures rival fans reserved for him.

A decade later and Italian clubs have yet to scrub the stain of racism off their club badges. Roman club Lazio will play two Europa League games behind closed doors after some of their fans were caught making fascist salutes last month.

Milan player Kevin Prince Boateng marched off the field in protest when Pro Patria fans made monkey noises at him during a friendly game a few weeks ago.

Kevin De Cesare was seated in the stadium’s Millennium stand and his experience tallied with that of others.

“Fans booed Balotelli more than other players,” he said, “but it was more about him being famous and controversial than race. I honestly didn’t hear anything racist.”

A spokesman for the Malta Football Association was similarly perplexed by the Italian media’s claims.

“It was a festive atmosphere and the crowd even applauded the Italian team at times. Balotelli got whistled, it’s true, but he tends to elicit that sort of reaction everywhere he goes and the Maltese fans know this. Skin colour had nothing to do with it.”

What the papers said about local fans