Silvio Berlusconi and his brother Paolo are getting heat over maverick Italy striker Mario Balotelli, with one accused of racism and the other of signing him for their club AC Milan only to win votes in this month's national election.

Paolo Berlusconi, AC Milan's vice president, was lambasted in social media after calling former Manchester City forward Balotelli "the little black boy of the family".

A video of his comments, made on Sunday after a political event, was going viral after it was posted on various websites.

"And now let's go and watch the little black boy of the family, the crazy head," Paolo Berlusconi says in the video.