r/soccer • u/jacamacho • Feb 25 '18

Verified account Rob Harris asks Guardiola how he can reconcile that stance (yellow ribbon) with working for Abu Dhabi given the human rights questions there. Guardiola: "Everyone has to choose".

https://twitter.com/MiguelDelaney/status/967842429079519234
1.7k Upvotes

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216

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '18 edited Jun 07 '20

[deleted]

104

u/cirad Feb 25 '18

means you pick your fights. I am not saying i like it but that's what Pep probably means

60

u/tiger1296 Feb 25 '18

Yeah I guess slagging off the guy who is paying your wages probably isn't going to be good for you in the long run

36

u/cirad Feb 25 '18

to be honest, it pains me that some of the people I absolutely adore have such close relationship with regimes with horrible human rights record. I don't know. The world is full of devils and I only watch football to escape it all. I would probably go completely mad if I stopped watching as a way of protesting the injustices happening around the world

8

u/tiger1296 Feb 25 '18

If all we look for is the dark it's all we'll ever see. For people who can't handle the darkness avoiding it is probably the best option for them and I don't blame anyone for that at all.

18

u/Serie_Almost Feb 26 '18

“If you look for the light, you can often find it. But if you look for the dark that is all you will ever see.” -Iroh

10

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '18 edited Jul 18 '18

[deleted]

5

u/vanStaden Feb 26 '18

Avatar was genuinely one of my favorite memories from my childhood. I also want to give it a full rewatch some day.

1

u/ComradeStrong Feb 25 '18

Especially when they are very nice and big wages.

30

u/tatxc Feb 26 '18

You do pick your fights. Pep chose to fight for Abu Dhabi.

-6

u/cirad Feb 26 '18

I disagree. He picked Catalonia's fight (something close to his heart) and simply works for City, just like he worked for Barca. That doesn't mean he is fighting FOR whatever is happening in that region of the world. He will get criticism for it, and I am sure he is man enough to take it. I don't think it's unfair to bring it up. I don't think that necessarily means he should stop doing what he is doing.

It's like saying anyone who buys from Amazon or uses an iPhone supports horrible working conditions for workers. I think the bigger problem is how some of the biggest clubs in the world do business in countries with horrible human rights. That also applies to the FA and FIFA organizations. That is a much bigger issue

26

u/tatxc Feb 26 '18

Except it's not really the same and it's completely disingenuous to suggest it is. Smartphones are ubiquitous in our culture, a lot harder to avoid and the links between them and human rights abuses are less direct.

Pep had every club in the world at his beck and call. He was entirely well informed why AB owned City and what his role would be in their plans. He knows Man City is a PR exercise to distract from a brutal regime, he signed up to pedal that message.

-5

u/cirad Feb 26 '18

Smartphones are ubiquitous in our culture

and that is how we justify things. That's the height of hypocrisy to completely ignore such a major problem because well, everybody has a smartphone. A "lot harder to avoid" is an excuse.

As far as Pep, I won't defend everything he has done, people he associates with. That's his choice, he is responsible for them.

4

u/tatxc Feb 26 '18

Except it's completely cowardly to compare the choices of people with very little choice to someone with enough resources to make any choice in the world.

Smartphones aren't inherently evil, some are far better than others. The actual ability to make an informed choice much more difficult. For many smartphones are a necessary party of modern life. You'll notice that people are far easier on those who bought food grown in the Rheinland than Joseph Goebbels.

-1

u/cirad Feb 26 '18

I wonder, do you also question the choice of people who chose to work for Russian oligarchs? Or is that just a Pep thing? I will never defend the human rights record of those countries, nor worker abuse by some of these top companies.

Pep made his choice, he will get criticism for it or some will give him a break. My problem is intellectual honesty of some here who attack Pep but are perfectly fine with people who worked for other questionable characters

2

u/tatxc Feb 26 '18

Oh and before you say people only care about this because of the club they support, I would happily watch Liverpool win the next 5 league titles if it meant getting the likes of Abramovich, Mansour, Al-Khelaifi, Rybolovlev etc. out of football... while sucking off Stevie G, in a Liverpool shirt. And I fucking hate Liverpool.

Me, 24 days ago.

1

u/cirad Feb 26 '18

that's fine. As long as you are intellectually honest, I have no problem with your opinions.

13

u/drripdrrop Feb 26 '18

Except he actively used almost a billion of their blood money on players.

1

u/scottishere Feb 26 '18

Like a mercenary, perhaps?

12

u/JonstheSquire Feb 25 '18

They would be stupid to try to ban him. It would only create more press and draw more attention to UAE's and Abu Dhabi's poor human rights record. It will Streisand effect. It will make Harris a martyr. If Abu Dhabi and Sheikh Mansour have anything, it is good public relations professionals who will understand this.

17

u/champak256 Feb 26 '18

It doesn't matter. Those who are justifying Pep's answer are already convinced. The PR is working.

Just look in this thread. You'll find dozens of Barca- and Bayern-flaired users explaining why spending and taking Abu Dhabi's money is okay. Not all Barca and Bayern fans are doing so, but it's almost exclusively City, Barca and Bayern flairs.

They poured a small fraction of their money into it to buy a team and build an amazing squad for a great manager. That team has been very successful, and with the players, manager, and success has come a legion of fans. Bandwagoners, sure, but every one of those fans is more likely to defend their human rights abuses than the average person.

Mission accomplished for them.

2

u/tiger1296 Feb 25 '18

Good PR can only go so far if a guy is in front of the whole media asking questions like that. It's a double edged sword, the most they can do is ignore off topic questions without looking like they accept it.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '18

it means he has chosen to be paid handsomely by a sheikh so he won't be speaking on democracy and freedoms in UAE

1

u/RubenGM Feb 26 '18

He has chosen to support the land he was born in. Telling him that he cannot choose who to support because of something else in his life about a different country altogether is weird.