‘People in charge need to get a grip over racist abuse’
JUDE BELLINGHAM last night labelled the torrent of racist abuse in La Liga ‘disgusting’ and admitted he has become accustomed to slurs from fans since joining Real Madrid. The £115million midfielder’s team-mate Aurelien Tchouameni was the latest victim last weekend after scoring Real’s winner at Mallorca. A tearful Vinicius Junior recently revealed he was losing his ‘desire’ for football because of the racist taunts and Bellingham took aim at the game’s authorities on the eve of his side’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Manchester City. ‘In the games where we go away, in La Liga especially, you almost get so used to it,’ said the 20-year-old. ‘That’s a massive problem in itself. More has to be done, whether it’s the punishment or how you move proactively to (stop) this kind of thing. ‘It’s a horrible way for a player to prepare for a game, knowing they’re probably going to get racially abused. It’s disgusting. It shouldn’t happen. ‘The people in power need to do more, especially with Vini in recent weeks — well, years actually. The blame gets shifted more on to 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 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.’ Tchouameni is suspended for tonight’s match at the Etihad after last week’s 3-3 draw in the Spanish capital, with Vinicius likely to be deployed as a central striker again. Bellingham could have been playing for City but has twice spurned their advances. They were beaten to his signature last summer by Madrid, and Bellingham’s family were also invited to the City Football Academy when he was in the Birmingham youth set-up. ‘I had good conversations with other teams but as soon as Real came in it was a no-brainer,’ he said of last year’s pursuit. ‘The size of the club, the project, the plan going forward, the chance to play with such amazing players. I jumped at it.’ Real head into this match as underdogs, and their superstitious manager Carlo Ancelotti has switched hotels from the Hyatt Regency to the Lowry in the hope of banishing all memories of last May’s chastening 4-0 semi-final second leg defeat. ‘City are amazing,’ 20goal Bellingham added. ‘I don’t know the odds, but I know we’re Real.’