text: Mario Balotelli receives the most abuse and Chelsea the greatest volume of discriminatory messages on social media, according to extensive research undertaken by Kick It Out. Sportsmail can reveal the shocking, acidic culture of discrimination — mainly based on race, gender or sexual orientation — aimed at Premier League football clubs and their players on the internet. Football's anti-discrimination campaigners teamed up with Tempero and Brandwatch to produce the most detailed findings of discrimination online. Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli is the Premier League player who receives most abuse online . Balotelli was on the end of 8,000 messages, with Arsenal's Danny Welbeck (above) receiving 1,700 . They discovered an abusive message is directed at a Premier League club or one of their players every 2.6 minutes with a total of 134,400 posted on Twitter, Facebook, forums or blogs between August 2014 and March 2015. 1 – Chelsea v Liverpool, Capital One Cup – 27 January 2015 . 2 – Sunderland v Manchester United, Premier League – 24 August 2014 . 3 – Arsenal v Manchester City, Community Shield – 10 August 2014 . 4 – Manchester United v Arsenal, The FA Cup – 9 March 2015 . 5 – Liverpool v Manchester United, Premier League – 22 March 2015 . 6 – Chelsea v Arsenal, Premier League – 5 October 2014 . 7 – Liverpool v Chelsea, Premier League – 8 November 2014 . 8 – Manchester United v Liverpool, Premier League – 14 December 2014 . Of the most popular players investigated, Liverpool striker Balotelli received by the far the most with more than 8,000 discriminatory messages directed at him and Arsenal's Danny Welbeck faced 1,700. In each case, at least 50 per cent of the abuse was racist. Meanwhile Liverpool's Daniel Sturridge received 1,600, more than 60 per cent of which related to sexual orientation. The clubs facing the most abuse reflected the top five in the league — albeit in a different order — Chelsea receiving 20,000, Liverpool 19,000, Arsenal 12,000 and Manchester United and City both getting 11,000. Almost a third of the abusive posts were racist, a quarter were based on gender and just under a fifth about sexual orientation. A further 11 per cent were about disability, nine per cent anti-semitism, five per cent islamophobia, two per cent about age and one per cent regarding gender reassignment. Daniel Sturridge received 1,600 abusive messages, 60 per cent of which related to sexual orientation . Mario Balotelli . – More than 8,000 discriminatory posts directed at him . – More than 52 per cent of the posts directed at him were racist . Danny Welbeck . – Approximately 1,700 discriminatory posts directed at him . – 50 per cent of the posts directed at him were racist . Daniel Sturridge . – Approximately 1,600 discriminatory posts directed at him . – More than 60 per cent of the posts directed at him were discrimination based on sexual orientation . The city that generated the highest volume of discriminatory posts by far was London, with 26,433 recorded during this campaign. Manchester is second with 8,331 and Liverpool follow with 6,792. Each of those are places with large populations which are home to successful clubs. Social media, in particular Twitter, has been a constant problem for football clubs since it grew in popularity, with Premier League stars and clubs having millions of followers. Manchester United tried to ban Twitter among their players in 2010 to little success. Former Liverpool player Ryan Babel was the first professional player to face action for a post online when he accepted a Football Association charge of improper conduct and was fined £10,000 for criticising referee Howard Webb on Twitter in 2011. Last year, Rio Ferdinand was suspended for three matches and fined £25,000 by the governing body when he included the word 'sket' — slang for a promiscuous woman or girl — in a reply to a tweet mocking him. Rio Ferdinand was suspended for three matches and fined £25,000 for a tweet include the word 'sket' In January this year, Stoke defender Robert Huth was handed a £15,000 fine and banned for two games for replying to a Twitter account which posts sexual images of individuals and asks users to guess their gender. Balotelli was fined £25,000 and banned for one match for a controversial image he posted on Instagram. Yet it appears the growing problem is in social media's use for attacking clubs and players which is spiralling out of control. MOST ABUSED CLUBS - 1 Chelsea 20,000; 2 Liverpool 19,000; 3 Arsenal 12,000; 4 Manchester United 11,000; 5 Manchester City 11,000 . TYPES OF DISCRIMINATION - Race 28 per cent; Gender 25 per cent; Sexual Orientation 19 per cent; Disability 11 per cent; Antisemitism 9 per cent; Islamophobia 5 per cent; Age 2 per cent; Gender Reassignment 1 per cent . ABUSIVE MESSAGES POSTED ONLINE - Per year 134,400; Per month 16,800; Per day 551 One per 2.6 minutes . VIRTUAL LOCATION - Twitter 88 per cent; Facebook 8 per cent*; Forums 3 per cent; Blogs 1 per cent . GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION - London 26,433; Manchester 8,331; Liverpool 6,792 . GENDER BREAKDOWN - 78 per cent of mentions come from men and 22 per cent originate from women . *All private profiles are gated and mentions made on these profiles are not monitored, therefore, they have not been included in this report. Because Facebook has the highest number of gated profiles, the amount of authors tracked from that network is significantly lower than Twitter.
target: Liverpool's Mario Balotelli receives more abuse than any other player .
  The Italian was on the end of 8,000 messages, with Danny Welbeck receiving 1,600 in a study carried out by Kick It Out .
  Anti-racism campaigners found 134,400 derogatory messages were made in just seven months on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social media .
  Rio Ferdinand was fined for  including the word 'sket' in a tweet .