Mario Balotelli branded 'an imbecile' for refusing to rule out links with Italian mafia ahead of World Cup qualifier between Italy and Armenia Mario Balotelli has been labelled "an imbecile" by a leading anti-mafia campaigner after he declined to be considered a symbol against the corrupt organisations via his Twitter account. The comment came after Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport named the former Manchester City striker as a model in the battle against the mafia. It came ahead of an Italian national team training session which took place on the pitch of a lower Italian league club which had been confiscated from a group of the Camorra in 2011 - the name of the Naples-based Mafia that Balotelli has previously denied having links with. The AC Milan forward responded via his official Twitter account, saying: "This is what you say! I come because football is beautiful and all must play it where they like, and then there is (Italy's) game (Tuesday against Armenia in Naples). The Tweet was accompanied with a picture of the newspaper article to confirm that it was a direct response to the La Gazzetta dello Sport article. However, this drew an sharp response from Rosaria Capacchione, a parliament member of the Senate in Campania - the state in which Naples resides - having been elected to the role in January this year. "Balotelli is an imbecile," Capacchione said at the training session which took place in the town of Quarto. In the best of cases he is a capricious, spoilt and full-of-money child who lives in an environment where it is difficult to tell good from evil. Capacchione has been an anti-mafia campaigner and journalist for Il Mattino since the 1980"s, and she lives under 24-hour escort following threats she received during her coverage and exposure of the Camorra. Recalling the incident in 2010 in which Balotelli was seen visiting Naples" ill-famed neighbourhood of Scampia, investigators believed that the 23-year-old - then just out of his teenage years - was accompanied by leading members of the Camorra group. A Camorra turncoat claimed in May that Balotelli sold drugs for fun during his time in Naples, provoking an angry response from Balotelli himself in which he denied the claims and that he did not know the identities of everyone who he was with during the visit. "In a situation like this, after the problems he had in the past, sending messages like his can be quite inappropriate," Capacchione said. As a journalist, I also wonder why he did it. Maybe he wanted to send a message to someone. Balotelli will return to footballing matters tonight when Italy take on Armenia in their final World Cup qualifier, having already qualified for next year's tournament in Brazil. The controversy comes after Balotelli was filmed losing his patience with a TV cameraman, hitting out at the camera as he was making his way from the team coach. Balotelli had to be restrained, before making his way into a building and away from the fracas.