‘Maybe we are alone’: Jude Bellingham questions whether authorities ‘care’ about racist abuse directed at Black footballers
Jude Bellingham, who played for Manchester City, has been criticised for his comments on the abuse he received during his playing days. Picture: BBC
Jude Bellingham has taken issue with what he called the “nursing” of racism.
The former Manchester City striker, who played for Arsenal, Celtic and Swansea, made his comments in the latest episode of his podcast, The Wrongful Dismissals.
Bellingham said that his experiences made him question how authorities react to racist behaviour in football and questioned whether they were “at all interested” in the issue.
The 31-year-old, who played for both Manchester City and Arsenal, opened up on racism in sport for the first time in an extended podcast, saying it was a “very, very real problem” before adding: “This was a time that I didn’t have the language or the language or the culture that I do now… to be aware of what was happening on the pitch, and to be aware of my behaviour on the pitch wasn’t part of my upbringing, I couldn’t speak to my parents about it at the time.
“No one ever came to me and said – ‘look, you’re a good person, you’re a good person, it’s OK for you to behave in a certain way, but you shouldn’t be doing something in your bedroom that you’re not supposed to be doing.’ Nothing like that ever happened on the pitch. I was just in the streets and I was walking home from the park.”
Jude Bellingham has been criticised for his comments on the abuse he received during his playing days. Picture: BBC
Bellingham said playing for Manchester City in 2003 made him an “isolated” man and the impact of racism at the club was “completely different
