Jude Bellingham issues warning to football authorities about tackling racist abuse

The 20-year-old midfielder called the abuse players receive ‘disgusting’ and said it is making his teammates want to quit the sport

Jude Bellingham has said that racism is such a massive problem in Spanish football that players have the horrible feeling of preparing for away games knowing they are going to face abuse.

The Real Madrid midfielder called on the footballing authorities to do more as he warned that the sport would miss a talent like Vinicius Junior if he walked away because of the culture of abuse.

Brazil winger Vinicius has been the recipient of 10 instances of racist abuse which have been reported to prosecutors by LaLiga and broke down in tears in a press conference last month as he said he was losing his desire to play while a Real Mallorca fan was seen making monkey gestures at Madrid’s Aurelien Tchouameni after he scored in Saturday’s win at the San Moix Stadium.

Bellingham said he is so accustomed to racism at Spanish grounds that he did not even notice as he detailed the extent of the problem.

He said: “I didn’t even know. I think in the games where we go away, in LaLiga especially, you almost get so used to it that, like I said, I wasn’t even aware of the incident. I think that’s a massive problem in itself.

“More has got to be done, whether it’s the punishment and how you react to it or how you move proactively to this kind of thing. I think it’s a horrible way for a player to prepare for a game knowing that they’re probably going to get racially abused. It’s disgusting. It shouldn’t happen.”

The England international is pessimistic about the prospects for change, even as he insisted that recent events should be a wake-up call.

Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior has been on the end of 10 different incidents of racist abuse in LaLiga this season (REUTERS)

He added: “The people in power need to do more, especially with Vini in the recent weeks – well, years actually. I think the blame gets shifted more onto him because of maybe his playing style and the way he likes to express himself and I don’t think that’s fair.

“The game would miss players like Vini if he decided to take a break because of this thing. More needs to be done to support these players.

“It’s sad to hear because I get to know the lads really well personally. No one deserves that kind if thing. It’s definitely a call-out for the people who are in charge to take control. I doubt that will happen.

“It’s going to be something that I imagine we will still have to just deal with going into games. But it’s I think that’s one of those things where you have just got to play your game and hope that the people look after you and they’re not doing it well enough at the moment.”