MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Jude Bellingham warned on Tuesday that soccer would miss Vinícius Junior if the Real Madrid star was driven out of the sport by racism.
Brazil winger Vinícius has repeatedly been the target of racial abuse from opposition fans and last month said he was losing his desire to carry on playing.
Bellingham said he doubted whether soccer's authorities would be able to stamp out racism in the sport after a Mallorca supporter was caught on camera over the weekend making monkey gestures following a goal from Madrid midfielder Aurelien Tchouaméni.
“The people in power need to do more, especially with Vini in the recent weeks — well, years actually,” Bellingham said ahead of Madrid’s Champions League quarterfinals second-leg match against Manchester City. "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.”
Vinícius broke down in tears when speaking last month about the abuse he's been subjected to.
In January last year, an effigy of Vinícius was hung from an overpass near Madrid’s training ground in the Spanish capital. Later that season, he was in tears during a match after confronting a fan who had made monkey gestures toward him.
Bellingham, an England international who joined Madrid from Borussia Dortmund last summer, said such incidents are so common in Spain that he wasn't even aware of the latest incident following Tchouaméni's goal.
“In the games where we go away, in La Liga especially, you almost get so used to it," he said. "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. 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.
“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. 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.”
Madrid and City go into the second leg at Etihad Stadium on Wednesday with the score tied at 3-3.
James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham, left, is challenged by Manchester City's Rodrigo during the Champions League quarterfinal first leg soccer match between Real Madrid and Manchester City at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Breton)
Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham attends a press conference at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Tuesday April 16, 2024 ahead of Wednesday's Champions League quarterfinal soccer match against Manchester City. (Martin Rickett/PA via AP)
Apple on Thursday disclosed its steepest quarterly decline in iPhone sales since the pandemic’s outset, deepening a slump that’s increasing the pressure on the trendsetting company to spruce up its products with more artificial intelligence.
The 10% drop in year-over-year iPhone sales for the January-March period is latest sign of weakness in a product that generates most of Apple’s revenue. It marked the biggest drop in iPhone sales since July-September period in 2020, when production bottlenecks caused by factory closures during the pandemic resulted in a delayed release of that year's model.
The current iPhone downturn was the main reason Apple’s revenue for the latest quarter decreased 4% from last year to $90.8 billion. It marked the fifth consecutive quarter that Apple’s revenue dipped from the previous year. Apple’s profit in the past quarter totaled $23.64 billion, or $1.53 per share, a 2% dip from last year.
But both Apple's revenue and earnings per share came in slightly above analysts projections, according to FactSet Research.
Part of the iPhone deterioration during the first three months of the year stemmed from a big boost in sales during the same period last year when Apple said it was filling pent-up demand caused by pandemic-driven shipment delays.
Even as it stumbles slightly, Apple remains one of the world’s most prosperous companies. The Cupertino, California, company hammered home that point by announcing a 4% increase in its quarterly dividend to 25 cents per share. The company also committed to spending $110 billion buying back its own stock, a move that investors cheered but may fuel criticism that Apple is spending more money catering to Wall Street than creating more innovative products.
Bolstered by the increased dividend and stock repurchase commitment, Apple's shares rose more than 7% in extended trading after the news came out. The stock price has fallen 10% so far this year, erasing about $300 billion in stockholder wealth.
Although investors have been dismayed by the weakening iPhone sales, they are also concerned Apple may be losing its edge as other tech giants such as Microsoft and Google sprint out to the early lead in artificial intelligence technology that is expected to reshape the industry and technology.
The latest quarterly report “leaves no margin for doubt about Apple’s current state of affairs,” said Investing.com analyst Thomas Monteiro. “More than ever in the past decade, the company needs new products and solutions.”
Apple is widely expected to unveil more AI services in June during an annual conference showcasing the next version of its software for the iPhone and Mac computers.
Weak sales in China were again a factor in the latest quarter, with revenue in that region falling 8% from last year to $16.37 billion as rival smartphone makers gained ground in one of the company’s largest markets
Apple had a few bright spots in the past quarter too, most notably in its service division, which saw its revenue rise 14% from the year before to $23.87 billion.
The division reaps a significant portion of its revenue from a lucrative deal that locks in Google as the search engine that automatically answers queries on the iPhone — an arrangement that is a focal point of an antitrust trial currently wrapping up with closing arguments in Washington this week.
Commissions collected on digital transactions within iPhone apps are also a major revenue source within Apple’s services division, an area being targeted in an U.S. Justice Department lawsuit alleging the company is running an illegal monopoly that locks out competition to the detriment of consumers.
That case is expected to take several years to resolve, but European regulators already are forcing Apple to allow more alternatives to its proprietary iPhone app store as part of the Digital Markets Act.
FILE - In this June 16, 2020 file photo, the sun is reflected on Apple's Fifth Avenue store in New York. Apple will reports earnings on Thursday May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
