Tottenham under pressure to abandon £320m deal

[mawspurs]

It is highly unlikely that Tottenham will bow to political pressure and ditch front-of-shirt sponsor AIA, industry sources have told Football Insider.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong has written to Spurs chairman and co-owner Daniel Levy asking him to reconsider the club’s relationship with the life insurance firm.

Source: Football Insider

 

[Neon_Knight_]

Has anyone written to Arsenal or Man City asking them to reconsider their relationships with Emirates / Etihad?

 

[quackers]

Has anyone written to Arsenal or Man City asking them to reconsider their relationships with Emirates / Etihad?

Is this the same government that pushed for the Saudis to take over the barcodes?

 

[Amo]

Has anyone written to Arsenal or Man City asking them to reconsider their relationships with Emirates / Etihad?

eh that’s precisely the whataboutism we laugh at them for spewing.

 

[Freddie]

eh that’s precisely the whataboutism we laugh at them for spewing.

True but when the government has directly facilitated the actual purchase of clubs by awful regimes, plus not got involved when other horrific organisations have bought clubs, it's a bit rich of them to tell us to ditch our sponsor who are a business that has merely indicated their support of a regime. Sure it's not something we should be happy about but we're towards the bottom of the list of things they should be preaching about.

 

[PCozzie]

Is this the same government that pushed for the Saudis to take over the barcodes?

It's an all party parliamentary group, it's not a part of the Government and only contains five Conservatives in its 24 members. Labour have the most with seven, as well as three Lib Dems and two SNP. One is a crossbench member of the Lords and one Independent (also 2 DUP, 1 Green and one Non-Affiliated, whatever that means).

 

[PCozzie]

True but when the government has directly facilitated the actual purchase of clubs by awful regimes, plus not got involved when other horrific organisations have bought clubs, it's a bit rich of them to tell us to ditch our sponsor who are a business that has merely indicated their support of a regime. Sure it's not something we should be happy about but we're towards the bottom of the list of things they should be preaching about.

The APPG on HK has nothing to do with the government.

 

[elfy]

"AIA publicly supports Hong Kong’s national security law introduced by the Chinese Communist Party in June 2020 with the ostensible aim of bringing about stability amid pro-democracy demonstrations.
But campaigners, including human rights group Amnesty International, argue that the bill has been used to curb freedom of expression and the right to protest in the region."

How does the new Policing Act affect my protest rights? - Liberty

As the Government’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act comes into effect, we explain the main protest law changes and what they mean for protesters.

www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk

 

[Freddie]

The APPG on HK has nothing to do with the government.

Yeah you're right but this is essentially a pretty irrelevant group who have a specific interest in Hong Kong. Morally they're on the right side but I can't see us walking way from hundreds of millions because of an APPG

 

[pavvychenks]

Presumably they have written to Liverpool as well given Standard Chartered are in the exact same boat as AIA?

 

[PCozzie]

Yeah you're right but this is essentially a pretty irrelevant group who have a specific interest in Hong Kong. Morally they're on the right side but I can't see us walking way from hundreds of millions because of an APPG

I'm not sure about the level of influence they have, but to put it in perspective there are also APPGs on Heritage Rail, Jazz, and Mindfulness. They're informal groupings rather than statutory. Every country is represented by an APPG and I'm sure they all do good work but as it stands this is no more than a letter urging the club to think about it.

 

[whitesocks]

Presumably they have written to Liverpool as well given Standard Chartered are in the exact same boat as AIA?

Yeah, and HSBC too have backed the national security law.
Clamp down them too.. oh wait.

 

[Johnny J]

The UK government is itself doing its best to make protests illegal.

 

[Tiberius Gracchus]

Personally I think we should cut ties - although easy for me to say that and I'd probably change my tune if it impoverishes the club...

And at the same time, call out the hypocrisy of the saudi takeover, rwanda etc. etc.

Makes a strong statement

As a minor bonus it would also mean we would (hopefully) no longer have red on the shirt...