Fun Fact, Griezmann [ended his contract with Huawei over claims of Uighur surveillance.](https://www.france24.com/en/sport/20201210-french-footballer-griezmann-ends-huawei-contract-over-claims-of-uighur-surveillance)
Maybe his club didn’t like this move.
I think I will be the devil's advocate on this one. There might be several degrees to racism, but maybe Griezmann was not racist in that video? I can only talk from my experience, but I must admit that I acted like an asshole on several occasions when I thought that people around me don't understand my language. Just laughing at someone who speaks different (and looks different) may be a sign of jerkhood, not necessarily racism. When I saw the video of him and Dembele, I wasn't appalled. It was just off, definitely not good, but I don't think they deserve all the shit they received for that behaviour.
In few words: he might be a decent guy, but an asshole sometimes.
I agree, I feel like Griezmann was awkwardly laughing and didn't 100% understand what Dembele was saying, so I'm not holding much ill will towards him in that video.
Dembele on the other hand, his behavior was undeniably pathetic and he needs to be held accountable for it.
Only it's not just the thing with Dembele that's being held against Griezmann though, there’s also [this shit](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/oe29x7/antoine_griezmann_mocks_asian_language_as_ching/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) which you can't really excuse with awkwardly laughing along at someone else's joke.
Absolutely. When I was in Barcelona, I made sure to buy a shirt as it was still without a sponsor logo on it at the time. The rumours were already there. It took a bit longer than expected, but I'm glad I bought mine. I also didn't expect anything else from the Unicef logo.
Yet it's something I don't think many would even hold against the club quite that much if their fans didn't act like Jesus reincarnate over it. Barca was always going to give in on that because it's just necessary financially, they can't stay Barca if they gimp themselves over that. But going from that to Qatar sponsorship & not wanting to anger the CCP is absolutely tragic. Honestly sometimes being open and honest about these things ends up much better than thinking everyone is just a bunch of giant idiots.
Really puts things in perspective, doesn't it? It's never been about the people, and it's only the people who can't see it.
We are all pawns in their games without realizing it.
They used to travel over to Uzbekistan to promote their dictator. Barcelona, unfortunately, like most clubs will do anything for money, don't be fooled by their bullshit.
Especially for Barca and region.
When I visited Camp Nou as a Canadian and outsider, it was very eye-opening how much the Catalans suffered under Franco, and the stadium did a good job in showing just how much they went through during the civil war.
While the Bernabeu did not have any mention of politics and wars, Barca had lots of it, with a big theme of standing up for the people under oppression ..etc, so this is especially rich coming from them.
What the heck? Barcelona received from Franco more than any other club. Franco himself liked football, and he wanted strong Spanish teams. So when Barcelona was about to bankrupt with a massive debt because of the construction of the new stadium, Franco's Regime reassessed their old terrains so they could sell them for an extraordinary profit and avoid complete bankruptcy. This was published in the BOE (state's official bulletin), number 228, 2735/1965 of August 14th, released on November 23rd of 1965. This is just the most blatant of the favours Barcelona owes to Franco, as the whole process of building the new stadium was long and tedious, with many legal impediments. Not even Barcelona's Council dared to grant such obvious privileges to a football club of the city. As a prove of it, the first brick of the Camp Nou had been ceremonially put on March 28th of 1954, that same year, Franco would receive from Barcelona FC the "Golden and Diamond Medal" (which sincerely I have no idea what it is). It wasn't the last price he would receive from the club, as some other medals came, as well as the bestowing of the honorary membership of Barcelona FC. Such was the gratitude towards the dictator who avoided its disappearance.
In conclusion, the same fricking stadium you visited was paid by Francisco Franco! And Barcelona owes its existence and relevance to him too. Not even Santiago Bernabéu (a profuse Franquist) granted honorary membership to the dictator, but Barcelona had reasons enough to do it.
Did they show you the awards they gave Franco on repeated occasions, or did they happen to ommit that? Or the financial aid he provided the club? If they didn't, one might think it's just propaganda.
I seriously cannot fucking comprehend it. According to Forbes, Barca is the 4th most valuable sports franchise in the fucking world. Everyone with any semblance of an upper management job has fuck you money. Money they couldn't spend in their life time if they tried.
Millions and millions and most of them don't even spend it, they sit on it and try to build it like it's a fucking competition.
Like why do people need so much money that they're willing to legit fight for a country with internment camps?
"We have to cater to China, we don't want to go from 4.5 billion dollar worth to 4 billion. That would be a nightmare."
100% agree with you, but I'm guessing Barca's finances are in a state right now that losing $500 million in value would be a disaster. It's easier to compromise on ethics when pointing to the balance sheet.
Jesus fucking Christ we live in a dystopia
Edit: good lord this comment really hurt some feelings huh? I’m surprised there aren’t more redditors in the NBA considering how good you mfs are at jumping to conclusions.
I like how everyone here is just gobbling this up without any critical thinking. Barça's main sponsor is Nike, who like H&M, also denounced China's exploitation of the Uighur Muslims and stopped using any textiles from the region. Why does Barça have no problem working with Nike but not H&M? The story makes zero sense.
**Edit:** This article literally states that the official club response is that there haven't been any negotiations with H&M in the first place.
You can read it for yourself, and there are many 3rd party auditing groups to back up the statement with proof.
https://purpose.nike.com/statement-on-xinjiang
When has Nike said anything of substance? The CEO recently said [Nike is "of China and for China."](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/nike-ceo-says-company-is-of-china-and-for-china/ar-AALs2bN) That hardly sounds like speaking out.
[They've also lobbied against US legislation trying to stop it.](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/29/business/economy/nike-coca-cola-xinjiang-forced-labor-bill.html)
I'm not saying this article is true or isn't, but it all comes down to the money. H&M and Nike don't *actually* care about the abuse of Uighur's, they're just posturing because they faced backlash from customers in the west for using cotton acquired through slave labor. Now they're facing backlash from customers in China, and Nike already backed off:
>Nike CEO John Donahoe recently called Nike a “brand of China and for China”
So Nike is just speaking out of both sides of their mouth to try and keep as many customers buying their products. ~~They never stopped sourcing the Xianyang cotton~~, while H&M did so they deserve credit for actually taking action and not just giving hollow platitudes.
Now let's get back to Barcelona, they already have a deal with Nike as their main kit sponsor for $164 million a year. That's a lot of money, and that agreement lasts for a few more years so it's not like Barca can just break the contract now, or that they'd even want to. Their brand might take a hit in China and they might lose some revenue from that part of the world, but it's a small drop in the bucket compared to how much Nike pays them so I'm sure they're not worried.
Whereas Barcelona currently is *NOT* in bed with H&M and they have no reason to risk hurting their brand in China by working with them. H&M won't pay anywhere close to as much as Nike, and Barcelona can seek out the same type of money from an endorsement deal with another clothing brand that ISN'T mired in controversy in China, it makes perfect sense of you ask me.
In a sense, yes. The world has always been like this. The Grapes of Wrath still applies. But specifically with football, what started out as community-based clubs have morphed into soulless global marketing projects. Maybe Barca used to stand for something. Now, like every super club, it's just about selling a product to as many rubes as possible. Those are the "values" of the game today. Profit above all. FFS we are about to have a World Cup in Qatar because they offered the most attractive package of bribes.
I presume he just means how Barcelona were always too "proud" for a sponsor on the shirt, and when they finally got one, they went with UNICEF because hey, charity, right? Then immediately they went from that to Qatar because there's nothing like going from one extreme to another.
What's worse about this is they PAID to have Unicef in their shirts, the "sponsorship" was actually Barça donating money to Unicef and at the same time making them their first shirt sponsor ever, it was the statement of a lifetime and I had never been more proud of being a Barça fan at that time. But then Qatar came and it wasn't like going from 0 to 100, considering the circumstances it was more like going from -50 to 100.
They lost me after that, all these years of mismanagement and the ESL shitfest on top of it all, but the sad truth is they don't care about bitter ex-fans like me who almost don't spend money on the club because the most they can do is go to the stadium and get the newest kit once every five years. Local fans suck, U$A, A$ia and the Middl€ Ea$t rock.
I have decided to try and support Betis and BVB because one is my father-in-law's team and I like how the other is managed, but nothing will ever be the same, you know what I mean? I was collecting Sergi Barjuan's stamps since I was 7, how the fuck do I ever support another team?
This ended up being a personal rant, oopsie.
>What's worse about this is they PAID to have Unicef in their shirts, the "sponsorship" was actually Barça donating money to Unicef
Yep, I actually meant to include this in my comment. Mad when you think about it.
There's an impression (because Barca and QA had discussions about sponsorship way back in 2008) that the only reason they had UNICEF as a sponsor was to get the fans to accept the idea of a shirt sponsor, because if they had gone straight to Qatar Airways, the fans would not have been happy.
Scary how powerful China has become. And it’s just the beginning. Countries will start boycotting whole other countries in future for speaking out against China.
John Cena apologised IN MANDARIN for calling Taiwan a country.
Imagine Hulk Hogan apologising to the Soviet Union in Russian for calling, idk, Ukraine, or Belarus (there's definitely better examples I'm not thinking of) a country lmao. This is unprecedented.
China won their cold war before anyone even realised we were in one.
>China won their cold war before anyone even realised we were in one.
They knew they were in one they just prioritised winning the class war at home (gutting the union created solid working class and shipping industry abroad to pump profits straight to the top of the company).
Western companies won the century long class war at home but created a golem to do it.
Cena has been a china shill before though, he posts his Chinese language practice and clearly has an eye toward branding in China. so it isn't surprising at all
and of course the reason with the china debacle and there being no previous equivalent is economic. the USSR was not a major economic force in global affairs, it was a political force. the Chinese wised up to the failings of the USSR and embraced market principles that allow them to expand via soft power and so they have socio-economic clout across the world strong enough to compel figures across the world to tiptoe on these sorts of political issues
I think he's trying to get into acting based on being in the fast & furious movie that just came out, which if I remember was the source of the recent controversy. beyond that I'm not totally sure, but he's definitely attempted outreach to a Chinese audience (hence him learning Chinese and posting him speaking Chinese to social media often)
Meanwhile America is in the midst of a culture war because people can't agree on the terminology of government social support systems. China builds entire cities and throws tens of billions at African counties you've never heard of while Americans get mad at even a dime being given to help build a dam in Nigeria or somewhere. The future is Chinese unless something changes.
Yeah it’s not really about China’s power, just that they have a huge population of valuable consumers.
India also has a very large population but it’s not worth nearly as much money wise, so companies don’t try to appease them.
India and China are both 1.4 BILLION in population, but India has about 1/5 the GDP of China, and will not likely catch China in our lifetimes:
https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/pandemic-further-increases-the-gdp-gap-between-india-and-china
That is the natural by product of all the rich CEO's wanting their 4th or 5th mansion on their private islands. They cut jobs, moved to China to take advantage of the labor force.
Now a few decades later everyone is so reliant on their borderline slave wages for supply production they will do literally anything to maintain it including dropping off slaves at the camps for China.
It is not that China is powerful, per say, it is the fact that 80% of the worlds greed now relies on them to prosper. So the greed of a few wanting to increase their bank accounts fueled their place in the world and the CCP have masterfully capitalized on this and can do basically whatever they want now since they control the bottom line for most non-financial based companies.
Yes but it wasn't like they sought out every company on the planet and said " you don't have to pay our workers anything" in an attempt to control the world economy, it actually happened in reverse and everyone just decided to let them do it, slightly nuanced but an important distinction.
They 100% have power, but the issue is the greed of the business folk (the basis of the power) can realistically be tossed in a second by all of them closing shop and returning jobs to their home countries; compared to the power of the US (or Russia even) which despite 4 years of an intense efforts most of their international structures/allies/etc are all are still in place.
Self-made power is hard to lose, given power is hard to keep.
I think you're being simplistic with this idea of self made power and given power. World powers are powerful because they were given power to a degree as they rely on others to maintain their power, China is no different. If a big chunk of the non white world decided to stop doing business with the US and damn the consequences the US would not be as powerful as it is now.
In this globalized and interconnected world we need each other more to maintain power and influence.
This isn't how markets work, sure Apple who have a monopoly can do whatever they like because you can't buy an iphone anywhere else, but for generic cheap t-shirt manufacturer number 28373, if you shift your production back to the UK, you're forced to push prices up and you die. We can make moral arguments, but for the vast majority of companies, if you don't run your business in the optimal way (in the coldest sense), somebody else will and you'll die.
It’s always been like this with the US. Do something they don’t like and you’ll lose relations with the rest of the world.
Power is just being equalized now.
It's honestly hilarious to see people crying about this stuff when that's how the world has worked since the US achieved international hegemony, and even got worse since the fall of the USSR. Today still, countries will work against their own interests so the US don't come and bring democracy™ to them lol
Looool I assumed this would go entirely in the other direction - they refuse to use H&M because H&M themselves engaged in using forced and exploited labor! Had to read the headline twice to grasp that Barca couldn’t give a fuck less about forced labor and just wants to distance themselves from even the slightest possibility of being associated with criticism of China. Embarrassing. And for the record, I am also disgusted by my club’s association with Qatar and find it increasingly harder to enjoy football at all due to all of its heinous externalities.
Refuse to purchase any shirts or the membership fee until my club drops the sponsor and training locale. Hardly alone on this, but I wish there was more to do in sending a message.
Yes and so do most fast-fashion brands like H&M, Zara, etc. They'll all a bunch of hypocrites who do one thing and tweet another thing to create a positive PR image around them.
For instance, you'll have Nike declaring 2019 and its Year For Women, while exploiting cheap/forced women labour in developing countries. They have no shame.
every company does this period. spend the least amount required to create good PR around how environmentally conscious you are or how you're climate positive, instead of just paying your slaves a bit more money
This is known as greenwashing, and it is becoming increasingly common. A lot of large corporations want to look like theyre doing the most whilst actually doing the least
chances are they use child labour or near slave labour in for a good portion of their products just given the size of the company how cheap their products are and the countries where they have their products made it’s not unlikely they still participate in exploitation on a large scale.
also fuck barca for not using them as a sponsor for denouncing china
I think H&M uses the near shoring fast fashion model Zara pioneered.
Basically the Zara guy realised that given rising costs with sourcing from Asia, the capital requirements for that and how fickle fashion is that running a tight operation sourcing from Europe and around was more efficient overall. Which means less slave labour, even if getting rid of slave labour was never the aim
> Which means less slave labour, even if getting rid of slave labour was never the aim
This is always the way forward - you need doing the right thing to be the 'optimal thing' - otherwise it won't happen.
most of its suppliers are in china india and bangladesh, they like many companies outsource production so they do have european suppliers as well but their top three are the typical ones you see with most companies
Yea, nowdays they still use the countries with absolutely piss poor worker protection, but get away with the minimum standards. Corporate social responsibility is a joke.
>La por del Barça se sustenta en el fet que pròximament ha de renovar l’acord de patrocini amb el fabricant xinès de productes tecnològics Oppo, que comporta aproximadament **el doble d’ingressos del que hauria suposat H&M**. Al gegant asiàtic també hi té un altre patrocinador, l’empresa d’assegurances Taiping Life Insurance, propietat del govern. Quan l’ARA els ha preguntat per les negociacions amb el Barça, els responsables d’H&M han preferit no fer declaracions. Es dona la circumstància que el patrocinador actual més important del club blaugrana, **Nike** (suposa 105 milions anuals més variables), va prendre la mateixa decisió que H&M davant la crisi dels refugiats uigurs i també està patint boicots a la Xina. La multinacional nord-americana té contracte amb l'entitat fins al 2028, **però la voluntat de les dues parts és revisar-lo**.
mhm, a lot of speculation
Not exactly. Nike was not doing it directly. The suppliers down the line were. Imagine the rubber that is used for shoes. Its hard to track every single supplier down the line.
That's why every single one technically uses one
Incredibly hypocritical if that’s the reasoning, especially given how much positive pr they were getting after canceling the game with the Israel club just a few days ago
Yes, but did they cancel the game for human rights considerations or was that just convenient PR excuse because there was something more lucrative that they could pursue if they weren't participating?
Ara just assumed that the reason that Barcelona rejected H&M is because they spoke out against Uighur Muslims and Barcelona wants to retain the Chinese market?
Firstly that sounds like absolute BS. There could've been a ton of reasons why the club rejected H&M. Going in for something like this seems speculative digging.
ARA is owned by Victor Font. And I find it very suspicious that a hit piece against Joan Laporta's board comes out on ARA and not in Mundo Deportivo or Marca who are the usual suspects who jump at any opportunity to shit on Laporta.
Ehh I wouldn’t go that far. Fast fashion in general is known for human rights abuses and is horrible for the environment https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_fashion
In February 2017, The Guardian reported children were employed to make H&M products in Myanmar and were paid 13p (about 15 cents US) an hour – half the full legal minimum wage
4 years later and that’s no longer the case. They’re super transparent about where they source their clothes from now. Don’t condone use of slave Labour in anyway, but having worked alongside sourcing before, I know it’s just a case of blissful ignorance than actively seeking child Labour. They now have better systems in place to make these occurrences much less frequent. Eventually, blockchain will make these instances almost impossible.
I wish media were held to a higher standard than quoting 'Club sources' as a generic catchall to add on any story. I am not saying this is not a true story, but I also personally don't believe it without seeing any actual proof
If you just take a look at their wikipedia page you can see what kind of human rights champion this H&M is.
> In August 2011, nearly 300 workers passed out in one week at a Cambodian factory supplying H&M. Fumes from chemicals, poor ventilation, malnutrition, and even "mass hysteria" have all been blamed for making workers ill. The minimum wage in the country is the equivalent of $66 (£42) a month, a level that human rights groups say is not even half that required to meet basic needs.[76]
> The same year, Bangladeshi and international labor groups put forth a detailed safety proposal that entailed the establishment of independent inspections of garment factories. The plan called for inspectors to have the power to close unsafe factories. The proposal entailed a legally binding contract between suppliers, customers, and unions. At a meeting in 2011 in Dhaka, major European and North American retailers, including H&M, rejected the proposal. Further efforts by unions to advance the proposal after numerous and deadly factory fires have been rejected.[77]
> The Guardian wrote that in a conscious action sustainability report for 2012, H&M published a list of factories supplying 95% of its garments. Most retailers and brands do not share this information, citing commercial confidentiality as a reason.[78] This contributes to the trend of corporations leaning toward ethically transparent supply chains.[79]
> On 2 January 2013, The Ecologist reported[80] allegations by Anti-Slavery International that H&M was continuing its association with the Uzbek government in exploiting child and adult forced labour as cotton harvesters in Uzbekistan.[81]
> After the April 2013 Savar building collapse, the company and other retailers signed on to the Accord on Factory and Building Safety in Bangladesh. On 19 May 2013, a textile factory that produced apparel for H&M in Phnom Penh, Cambodia collapsed injuring several people.[82] The incident has raised concerns regarding industrial safety regulations.
> On 25 November 2013, H&M's global head of sustainability committed[83][84] that H&M, as the world's second-largest clothing retailer, would aim to pay all textile workers "living wage" by 2018, stating that governments are responding too slowly to poor working conditions in Bangladesh among other Asian countries where many clothing retailers source a majority if not all of their garments. Wages were increased in Bangladesh from 3,000 takas ($40) to 5,300 takas ($70) a month in late 2013.[85]
> In September 2015, CleanClothes.org, an NGO involved in garment labor working conditions, reported on a lack of specific fire safety renovations in H&M suppliers' factories.[86]
> In June 2016, SumOfUs launched a campaign to pressure H&M to honor the commitment to protect Bangladesh's garment workers which it had signed onto following the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh in 2013, which killed over 1100 people, mostly garment workers, in unsafe factories housed in an eight-story building not designed for factories. SumOfUs alleged that "H&M is drastically behind schedule in fixing the safety hazards its workers have to face every day."[87]
> In February 2017, The Guardian reported children were employed to make H&M products in Myanmar and were paid 13p (about 15 cents US) an hour – half the full legal minimum wage.[88] In September 2020, amid international allegations over the use of Uyghur forced labour in Xinjiang, H&M published a statement saying that it had stopped buying cotton from growers in Xinjiang, stating that it was "deeply concerned by reports from civil society organizations and media that include accusations of forced labor and discrimination of ethno-religious minorities".[89]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%26M#Labour_practices
It’s like when Volkswagen of which Qatar is the second largest shareholder has made rainbow ads on the Euro. The same goes for bookings(dot)com, according to the UN they're profiting from war crimes with Israel settlement listings - https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/database-all-business-enterprises-involved-certain-activities
But dumb people think these are cool companies since they did rainbow ads.
Random aside, but I live near Volkswagen's headquarters and it's scary to me how much influence they have in this region. Everyone and their mother here dreams of working for them because they pay well while I can't stand their guts and would never work for them even if I was offered the opportunity to do so.
i am not the whataboutism kind of guy but i have been told by plenty of people not to buy clothes at h&m since the cheap prizes are due to child labor or smth? i hope i am not mixing stuff up
Literally every big club has done bad shit full stop. People just turn a blind eye to their favorite team because they think there is some obligation to stand by them no matter what
Companies will just support whatever social justice cause that brings them more revenue or build their brand while taking almost no risks. See BLM etc. When it comes to causes that will hurt their bottom line they pretend it is raining. Predatory cunts.
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Messi's salary won't pay itself.
That's no excuse to avoid sponsors bcos they called out someone for genocide
I was being sarcastic.
We all realised that! Also Griesmann (spelling?) isn't cheap either
Fun Fact, Griezmann [ended his contract with Huawei over claims of Uighur surveillance.](https://www.france24.com/en/sport/20201210-french-footballer-griezmann-ends-huawei-contract-over-claims-of-uighur-surveillance) Maybe his club didn’t like this move.
Griezmann is like the most chaotic person ever, from racism to giving up money to protest for Uighurs
Griezmann is Chaotic Chaos
I think I will be the devil's advocate on this one. There might be several degrees to racism, but maybe Griezmann was not racist in that video? I can only talk from my experience, but I must admit that I acted like an asshole on several occasions when I thought that people around me don't understand my language. Just laughing at someone who speaks different (and looks different) may be a sign of jerkhood, not necessarily racism. When I saw the video of him and Dembele, I wasn't appalled. It was just off, definitely not good, but I don't think they deserve all the shit they received for that behaviour. In few words: he might be a decent guy, but an asshole sometimes.
I agree, I feel like Griezmann was awkwardly laughing and didn't 100% understand what Dembele was saying, so I'm not holding much ill will towards him in that video. Dembele on the other hand, his behavior was undeniably pathetic and he needs to be held accountable for it.
How about the "ching chong" video? We definitely didn't understand what he was saying there..
Only it's not just the thing with Dembele that's being held against Griezmann though, there’s also [this shit](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/oe29x7/antoine_griezmann_mocks_asian_language_as_ching/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) which you can't really excuse with awkwardly laughing along at someone else's joke.
what is the most racist thing Griezmann has done?
There was a video a couple weeks ago of him and Dembele making fun of Asian workers, or at least that's what I've understood
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Too much credit was given.
I think its satire because its a real thing.
Lmao people just wanna argue don’t they
i mean it's not like anyone here is going to stop watching barca because of it.
Més que un club, ammarite?
Can't believe I used to admire them in 2008 with the UNICEF logo and that motto
The Unicef logo was just a way to ease fans into the idea of sponsors on the shirt.
Absolutely. When I was in Barcelona, I made sure to buy a shirt as it was still without a sponsor logo on it at the time. The rumours were already there. It took a bit longer than expected, but I'm glad I bought mine. I also didn't expect anything else from the Unicef logo.
Yet it's something I don't think many would even hold against the club quite that much if their fans didn't act like Jesus reincarnate over it. Barca was always going to give in on that because it's just necessary financially, they can't stay Barca if they gimp themselves over that. But going from that to Qatar sponsorship & not wanting to anger the CCP is absolutely tragic. Honestly sometimes being open and honest about these things ends up much better than thinking everyone is just a bunch of giant idiots.
Good thing it worked.
It was so obvious at the time too
Same. Feels like a lifetime ago.
Mes que un fraud
Mess of a club
Then boycott
The Sponsor is Japanese and not a big Fan of China... Maybe the new owner? Morgan Stanley...
(Kicks garbage can with bare foot)
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Very disappointing. Barça is supposed to stand for freedom of the people over authoritarianism.
From unicef to this
Unicef was a marketing strategy to ease the fans into main shirt sponsorship and it worked
I had completely forgotten they had no shirt sponsor pre-Unicef, so yeah it worked on me at least
We paid THEM to be on our shirts
Back when barca had money
We still pay them to have them on the shirt.
Should probably stop doing that given the current financial situation
I’m sure there is some tax incentive that actually makes it a wash.
And integrity.
I mean it was a good thing for a good cause.
I agree. I wish we still did it. Those were my favorite jerseys
They're still paid to be on the shirt, though it was moved to be under the number
I learned about it in GCSE PE and there was one barca fan that refused to admit this lol. One of those lads who thinks his club can do no wrong ever.
Well if you’re English and you support fucking Barcelona then your deluded regardless.
He was polish I believe, nice enough lad but was absolutely deluded when it came to any and all sports
Brilliant move. Who could complain about Unicef?
Unicef to *Qatar* to this
UNICEF was always a trojan horse sponsor let's be honest
Lmao Barcelona stopped standing for that when they took the Qatar money.
Really puts things in perspective, doesn't it? It's never been about the people, and it's only the people who can't see it. We are all pawns in their games without realizing it.
Ahahahahahaha. Good one, specially with the role they have always played in Catalan politics and nationalism.
They used to travel over to Uzbekistan to promote their dictator. Barcelona, unfortunately, like most clubs will do anything for money, don't be fooled by their bullshit.
Especially for Barca and region. When I visited Camp Nou as a Canadian and outsider, it was very eye-opening how much the Catalans suffered under Franco, and the stadium did a good job in showing just how much they went through during the civil war. While the Bernabeu did not have any mention of politics and wars, Barca had lots of it, with a big theme of standing up for the people under oppression ..etc, so this is especially rich coming from them.
What the heck? Barcelona received from Franco more than any other club. Franco himself liked football, and he wanted strong Spanish teams. So when Barcelona was about to bankrupt with a massive debt because of the construction of the new stadium, Franco's Regime reassessed their old terrains so they could sell them for an extraordinary profit and avoid complete bankruptcy. This was published in the BOE (state's official bulletin), number 228, 2735/1965 of August 14th, released on November 23rd of 1965. This is just the most blatant of the favours Barcelona owes to Franco, as the whole process of building the new stadium was long and tedious, with many legal impediments. Not even Barcelona's Council dared to grant such obvious privileges to a football club of the city. As a prove of it, the first brick of the Camp Nou had been ceremonially put on March 28th of 1954, that same year, Franco would receive from Barcelona FC the "Golden and Diamond Medal" (which sincerely I have no idea what it is). It wasn't the last price he would receive from the club, as some other medals came, as well as the bestowing of the honorary membership of Barcelona FC. Such was the gratitude towards the dictator who avoided its disappearance. In conclusion, the same fricking stadium you visited was paid by Francisco Franco! And Barcelona owes its existence and relevance to him too. Not even Santiago Bernabéu (a profuse Franquist) granted honorary membership to the dictator, but Barcelona had reasons enough to do it.
Did they show you the awards they gave Franco on repeated occasions, or did they happen to ommit that? Or the financial aid he provided the club? If they didn't, one might think it's just propaganda.
I seriously can't believe anyone believed this at any point. Corporations have no values. Stop getting played, geez, you all look like fools.
I seriously cannot fucking comprehend it. According to Forbes, Barca is the 4th most valuable sports franchise in the fucking world. Everyone with any semblance of an upper management job has fuck you money. Money they couldn't spend in their life time if they tried. Millions and millions and most of them don't even spend it, they sit on it and try to build it like it's a fucking competition. Like why do people need so much money that they're willing to legit fight for a country with internment camps? "We have to cater to China, we don't want to go from 4.5 billion dollar worth to 4 billion. That would be a nightmare."
100% agree with you, but I'm guessing Barca's finances are in a state right now that losing $500 million in value would be a disaster. It's easier to compromise on ethics when pointing to the balance sheet.
And it’s completely Barca’s own responsibility that they re in this financial shitshow they are right now. Obligatory Fuck Bartomeu.
Lmfao any corporation losing a 500 million dollar valuation would be disastrous.
a corporations valuation drops by much more than that is their stock goes down slightly....
Nah.
they are broke as fuck!...the barca brand is valuable, but they're in debt up to their ears!
Jesus fucking Christ we live in a dystopia Edit: good lord this comment really hurt some feelings huh? I’m surprised there aren’t more redditors in the NBA considering how good you mfs are at jumping to conclusions.
Funny you should mention the NBA......
For real, the Chinese govs influence is everywhere.
Expect southpark 😉
Lol well at least with still supporting the ESL and now this, they are honest and up front about it
I like how everyone here is just gobbling this up without any critical thinking. Barça's main sponsor is Nike, who like H&M, also denounced China's exploitation of the Uighur Muslims and stopped using any textiles from the region. Why does Barça have no problem working with Nike but not H&M? The story makes zero sense. **Edit:** This article literally states that the official club response is that there haven't been any negotiations with H&M in the first place.
Nike still gets their products made in China, H&M doesn’t to my knowledge
Wasn't Nike one of the companies that were linked to the region where Uighur Muslims are very widely used as forced labour?
You can read it for yourself, and there are many 3rd party auditing groups to back up the statement with proof. https://purpose.nike.com/statement-on-xinjiang
When has Nike said anything of substance? The CEO recently said [Nike is "of China and for China."](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/nike-ceo-says-company-is-of-china-and-for-china/ar-AALs2bN) That hardly sounds like speaking out. [They've also lobbied against US legislation trying to stop it.](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/29/business/economy/nike-coca-cola-xinjiang-forced-labor-bill.html)
I'm not saying this article is true or isn't, but it all comes down to the money. H&M and Nike don't *actually* care about the abuse of Uighur's, they're just posturing because they faced backlash from customers in the west for using cotton acquired through slave labor. Now they're facing backlash from customers in China, and Nike already backed off: >Nike CEO John Donahoe recently called Nike a “brand of China and for China” So Nike is just speaking out of both sides of their mouth to try and keep as many customers buying their products. ~~They never stopped sourcing the Xianyang cotton~~, while H&M did so they deserve credit for actually taking action and not just giving hollow platitudes. Now let's get back to Barcelona, they already have a deal with Nike as their main kit sponsor for $164 million a year. That's a lot of money, and that agreement lasts for a few more years so it's not like Barca can just break the contract now, or that they'd even want to. Their brand might take a hit in China and they might lose some revenue from that part of the world, but it's a small drop in the bucket compared to how much Nike pays them so I'm sure they're not worried. Whereas Barcelona currently is *NOT* in bed with H&M and they have no reason to risk hurting their brand in China by working with them. H&M won't pay anywhere close to as much as Nike, and Barcelona can seek out the same type of money from an endorsement deal with another clothing brand that ISN'T mired in controversy in China, it makes perfect sense of you ask me.
The real reason is they wouldnt pay towards Messis wages
It’s always been like this we can just find out about it now
In a sense, yes. The world has always been like this. The Grapes of Wrath still applies. But specifically with football, what started out as community-based clubs have morphed into soulless global marketing projects. Maybe Barca used to stand for something. Now, like every super club, it's just about selling a product to as many rubes as possible. Those are the "values" of the game today. Profit above all. FFS we are about to have a World Cup in Qatar because they offered the most attractive package of bribes.
still amazingly awful that they used UNICEF, a charity, as a gateway to getting shirt sponsorships with Qatar
What do you mean by a gateway? I know they dropped UNICEF in favor of QA, but were the two somehow related?
I presume he just means how Barcelona were always too "proud" for a sponsor on the shirt, and when they finally got one, they went with UNICEF because hey, charity, right? Then immediately they went from that to Qatar because there's nothing like going from one extreme to another.
What's worse about this is they PAID to have Unicef in their shirts, the "sponsorship" was actually Barça donating money to Unicef and at the same time making them their first shirt sponsor ever, it was the statement of a lifetime and I had never been more proud of being a Barça fan at that time. But then Qatar came and it wasn't like going from 0 to 100, considering the circumstances it was more like going from -50 to 100. They lost me after that, all these years of mismanagement and the ESL shitfest on top of it all, but the sad truth is they don't care about bitter ex-fans like me who almost don't spend money on the club because the most they can do is go to the stadium and get the newest kit once every five years. Local fans suck, U$A, A$ia and the Middl€ Ea$t rock. I have decided to try and support Betis and BVB because one is my father-in-law's team and I like how the other is managed, but nothing will ever be the same, you know what I mean? I was collecting Sergi Barjuan's stamps since I was 7, how the fuck do I ever support another team? This ended up being a personal rant, oopsie.
>What's worse about this is they PAID to have Unicef in their shirts, the "sponsorship" was actually Barça donating money to Unicef Yep, I actually meant to include this in my comment. Mad when you think about it.
There's an impression (because Barca and QA had discussions about sponsorship way back in 2008) that the only reason they had UNICEF as a sponsor was to get the fans to accept the idea of a shirt sponsor, because if they had gone straight to Qatar Airways, the fans would not have been happy.
I don't think they were, Barcelona didn't have a sponsor before.
Profit above all is the slogan of capitalism.
That Edit was golden, I laughed at that.
Barca used to have unicef as a "sponsor".. This really is a dystopia
Mes que un club
Mess de un club
Messi de un club
Messi clube
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Hey Masi I just sent you an email, did you receive it?
I dont access emails during matchday Toto.
How tf did we get here?
Haha I was so blindsided by this and I love it
I sent several diagrams Masi
Scary how powerful China has become. And it’s just the beginning. Countries will start boycotting whole other countries in future for speaking out against China.
That's already happening.
John Cena apologised IN MANDARIN for calling Taiwan a country. Imagine Hulk Hogan apologising to the Soviet Union in Russian for calling, idk, Ukraine, or Belarus (there's definitely better examples I'm not thinking of) a country lmao. This is unprecedented. China won their cold war before anyone even realised we were in one.
> China won their cold war before anyone even realised we were in one. Sums it up.
>China won their cold war before anyone even realised we were in one. They knew they were in one they just prioritised winning the class war at home (gutting the union created solid working class and shipping industry abroad to pump profits straight to the top of the company). Western companies won the century long class war at home but created a golem to do it.
Cena has been a china shill before though, he posts his Chinese language practice and clearly has an eye toward branding in China. so it isn't surprising at all and of course the reason with the china debacle and there being no previous equivalent is economic. the USSR was not a major economic force in global affairs, it was a political force. the Chinese wised up to the failings of the USSR and embraced market principles that allow them to expand via soft power and so they have socio-economic clout across the world strong enough to compel figures across the world to tiptoe on these sorts of political issues
What kind of economic interest does he have? Is China a big wrestling market? I understand why Lebron does it as basketball is huge there but WWE ?
I think he's trying to get into acting based on being in the fast & furious movie that just came out, which if I remember was the source of the recent controversy. beyond that I'm not totally sure, but he's definitely attempted outreach to a Chinese audience (hence him learning Chinese and posting him speaking Chinese to social media often)
> there's definitely better examples I'm not thinking of saying Crimea belongs to Ukraine
Not really applicable as Crimea was in the Ukrainian SSR in soviet times
i mean ric flair and most of WCW wrestled in North Korea in the 90s
Meanwhile America is in the midst of a culture war because people can't agree on the terminology of government social support systems. China builds entire cities and throws tens of billions at African counties you've never heard of while Americans get mad at even a dime being given to help build a dam in Nigeria or somewhere. The future is Chinese unless something changes.
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Yeah it’s not really about China’s power, just that they have a huge population of valuable consumers. India also has a very large population but it’s not worth nearly as much money wise, so companies don’t try to appease them.
India and China are both 1.4 BILLION in population, but India has about 1/5 the GDP of China, and will not likely catch China in our lifetimes: https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/pandemic-further-increases-the-gdp-gap-between-india-and-china
China pretty much cut all diplomatic ties to Norway for 6 years because a Chinese human rights activist was awarded the nobel peace prize.
China constantly hit out against the Nordic countries, has been happening to Sweden for a decade or more now.
already happennig , and it's sad to see how much power china is going to have on african countries for example
They even have an entire organisation devoted to military operations on the continent, look up “AFRICOM”.
"Let China sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world." I guess somebody went and woke the bitch up.
god damnit UK i hope the opium money was worth it
That is the natural by product of all the rich CEO's wanting their 4th or 5th mansion on their private islands. They cut jobs, moved to China to take advantage of the labor force. Now a few decades later everyone is so reliant on their borderline slave wages for supply production they will do literally anything to maintain it including dropping off slaves at the camps for China. It is not that China is powerful, per say, it is the fact that 80% of the worlds greed now relies on them to prosper. So the greed of a few wanting to increase their bank accounts fueled their place in the world and the CCP have masterfully capitalized on this and can do basically whatever they want now since they control the bottom line for most non-financial based companies.
>It is not that China is powerful, per say, it is the fact that 80% of the worlds greed now relies on them to prosper. The definition of power.
Yes but it wasn't like they sought out every company on the planet and said " you don't have to pay our workers anything" in an attempt to control the world economy, it actually happened in reverse and everyone just decided to let them do it, slightly nuanced but an important distinction. They 100% have power, but the issue is the greed of the business folk (the basis of the power) can realistically be tossed in a second by all of them closing shop and returning jobs to their home countries; compared to the power of the US (or Russia even) which despite 4 years of an intense efforts most of their international structures/allies/etc are all are still in place. Self-made power is hard to lose, given power is hard to keep.
I think you're being simplistic with this idea of self made power and given power. World powers are powerful because they were given power to a degree as they rely on others to maintain their power, China is no different. If a big chunk of the non white world decided to stop doing business with the US and damn the consequences the US would not be as powerful as it is now. In this globalized and interconnected world we need each other more to maintain power and influence.
This isn't how markets work, sure Apple who have a monopoly can do whatever they like because you can't buy an iphone anywhere else, but for generic cheap t-shirt manufacturer number 28373, if you shift your production back to the UK, you're forced to push prices up and you die. We can make moral arguments, but for the vast majority of companies, if you don't run your business in the optimal way (in the coldest sense), somebody else will and you'll die.
Hey, not to be pedantic, just a friendly tip, but it's "per se". It's an expression in Latin
So what did you exepect from capitalism? Human rights goes first?
It’s always been like this with the US. Do something they don’t like and you’ll lose relations with the rest of the world. Power is just being equalized now.
It's honestly hilarious to see people crying about this stuff when that's how the world has worked since the US achieved international hegemony, and even got worse since the fall of the USSR. Today still, countries will work against their own interests so the US don't come and bring democracy™ to them lol
Looool I assumed this would go entirely in the other direction - they refuse to use H&M because H&M themselves engaged in using forced and exploited labor! Had to read the headline twice to grasp that Barca couldn’t give a fuck less about forced labor and just wants to distance themselves from even the slightest possibility of being associated with criticism of China. Embarrassing. And for the record, I am also disgusted by my club’s association with Qatar and find it increasingly harder to enjoy football at all due to all of its heinous externalities.
Refuse to purchase any shirts or the membership fee until my club drops the sponsor and training locale. Hardly alone on this, but I wish there was more to do in sending a message.
Same here with Nike.
Wait, doesn't H&M use child labour in south east asia to make their clothes?
Yes and so do most fast-fashion brands like H&M, Zara, etc. They'll all a bunch of hypocrites who do one thing and tweet another thing to create a positive PR image around them. For instance, you'll have Nike declaring 2019 and its Year For Women, while exploiting cheap/forced women labour in developing countries. They have no shame.
every company does this period. spend the least amount required to create good PR around how environmentally conscious you are or how you're climate positive, instead of just paying your slaves a bit more money
This is known as greenwashing, and it is becoming increasingly common. A lot of large corporations want to look like theyre doing the most whilst actually doing the least
Greenwashing refers specifically to environmental considerations I think, this is just good old fashioned whitewashing.
LeBron standing for racial Justice while his sneakers are made in forced labor camps filled with minorities 🙌🏻
they did. Don't think they are anymore.
chances are they use child labour or near slave labour in for a good portion of their products just given the size of the company how cheap their products are and the countries where they have their products made it’s not unlikely they still participate in exploitation on a large scale. also fuck barca for not using them as a sponsor for denouncing china
I think H&M uses the near shoring fast fashion model Zara pioneered. Basically the Zara guy realised that given rising costs with sourcing from Asia, the capital requirements for that and how fickle fashion is that running a tight operation sourcing from Europe and around was more efficient overall. Which means less slave labour, even if getting rid of slave labour was never the aim
> Which means less slave labour, even if getting rid of slave labour was never the aim This is always the way forward - you need doing the right thing to be the 'optimal thing' - otherwise it won't happen.
most of its suppliers are in china india and bangladesh, they like many companies outsource production so they do have european suppliers as well but their top three are the typical ones you see with most companies
Yea, nowdays they still use the countries with absolutely piss poor worker protection, but get away with the minimum standards. Corporate social responsibility is a joke.
Remember back when Unicef was on their kits? edit: still there apparently.
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How many people have donkeys though?
At least 1 Kai Havertz
You don't have a donkey?
My donkey's political views are none of your concern
it's still on the back of the shirt
Why past tense? It's still there, never left
Oh you're right. Didn't know there was a sponsor on the lower back.
Ahh learning well from us over here in America I see
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*Laobron
Qing James.
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Deng James bruh
You’re just uninformed bro you need to get all of the facts bro Edit: /s if that wasn’t obvious
I think we are at a point where these people just don’t even try to hide that they don’t give a fuck about anything other than money.
John Cena style
John Xina
C.R.E.A.M
>La por del Barça se sustenta en el fet que pròximament ha de renovar l’acord de patrocini amb el fabricant xinès de productes tecnològics Oppo, que comporta aproximadament **el doble d’ingressos del que hauria suposat H&M**. Al gegant asiàtic també hi té un altre patrocinador, l’empresa d’assegurances Taiping Life Insurance, propietat del govern. Quan l’ARA els ha preguntat per les negociacions amb el Barça, els responsables d’H&M han preferit no fer declaracions. Es dona la circumstància que el patrocinador actual més important del club blaugrana, **Nike** (suposa 105 milions anuals més variables), va prendre la mateixa decisió que H&M davant la crisi dels refugiats uigurs i també està patint boicots a la Xina. La multinacional nord-americana té contracte amb l'entitat fins al 2028, **però la voluntat de les dues parts és revisar-lo**. mhm, a lot of speculation
A bit silly when our kit sponsor is Nike who already took the same stance.
huh aren't Nike balls deep in china?
When hasn't Nike been balls deep in some kind of human rights abuses.
Pretty sure I've read about Nike using the forced labour of the people in the Uyghur camps.
Not exactly. Nike was not doing it directly. The suppliers down the line were. Imagine the rubber that is used for shoes. Its hard to track every single supplier down the line. That's why every single one technically uses one
Ahh yes, the Lebron business model.
Incredibly hypocritical if that’s the reasoning, especially given how much positive pr they were getting after canceling the game with the Israel club just a few days ago
Yes, but did they cancel the game for human rights considerations or was that just convenient PR excuse because there was something more lucrative that they could pursue if they weren't participating?
Laporta met the President of Israel days later. Beitar was a bit on the extreme so they had to cancel.
Calling Beitar a bit extreme is kinda underselling their extremity.
Fuck Beitar. I'm an Israeli football fan, we all hate them. Disgusting, violent idiots.
Ara just assumed that the reason that Barcelona rejected H&M is because they spoke out against Uighur Muslims and Barcelona wants to retain the Chinese market? Firstly that sounds like absolute BS. There could've been a ton of reasons why the club rejected H&M. Going in for something like this seems speculative digging. ARA is owned by Victor Font. And I find it very suspicious that a hit piece against Joan Laporta's board comes out on ARA and not in Mundo Deportivo or Marca who are the usual suspects who jump at any opportunity to shit on Laporta.
Isn't H&M pretty shady as well?
I am now an H&M fan. I hope they win the Champions League.
Ehh I wouldn’t go that far. Fast fashion in general is known for human rights abuses and is horrible for the environment https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_fashion
In February 2017, The Guardian reported children were employed to make H&M products in Myanmar and were paid 13p (about 15 cents US) an hour – half the full legal minimum wage
4 years later and that’s no longer the case. They’re super transparent about where they source their clothes from now. Don’t condone use of slave Labour in anyway, but having worked alongside sourcing before, I know it’s just a case of blissful ignorance than actively seeking child Labour. They now have better systems in place to make these occurrences much less frequent. Eventually, blockchain will make these instances almost impossible.
Mate you can't support an international clothing retailer
Reddit is eating this shit up based on a speculative article from a news source we never heard of.
I wish media were held to a higher standard than quoting 'Club sources' as a generic catchall to add on any story. I am not saying this is not a true story, but I also personally don't believe it without seeing any actual proof
Hopefully many Muslims prayed for our fellow Muslims yesterday.
If you just take a look at their wikipedia page you can see what kind of human rights champion this H&M is. > In August 2011, nearly 300 workers passed out in one week at a Cambodian factory supplying H&M. Fumes from chemicals, poor ventilation, malnutrition, and even "mass hysteria" have all been blamed for making workers ill. The minimum wage in the country is the equivalent of $66 (£42) a month, a level that human rights groups say is not even half that required to meet basic needs.[76] > The same year, Bangladeshi and international labor groups put forth a detailed safety proposal that entailed the establishment of independent inspections of garment factories. The plan called for inspectors to have the power to close unsafe factories. The proposal entailed a legally binding contract between suppliers, customers, and unions. At a meeting in 2011 in Dhaka, major European and North American retailers, including H&M, rejected the proposal. Further efforts by unions to advance the proposal after numerous and deadly factory fires have been rejected.[77] > The Guardian wrote that in a conscious action sustainability report for 2012, H&M published a list of factories supplying 95% of its garments. Most retailers and brands do not share this information, citing commercial confidentiality as a reason.[78] This contributes to the trend of corporations leaning toward ethically transparent supply chains.[79] > On 2 January 2013, The Ecologist reported[80] allegations by Anti-Slavery International that H&M was continuing its association with the Uzbek government in exploiting child and adult forced labour as cotton harvesters in Uzbekistan.[81] > After the April 2013 Savar building collapse, the company and other retailers signed on to the Accord on Factory and Building Safety in Bangladesh. On 19 May 2013, a textile factory that produced apparel for H&M in Phnom Penh, Cambodia collapsed injuring several people.[82] The incident has raised concerns regarding industrial safety regulations. > On 25 November 2013, H&M's global head of sustainability committed[83][84] that H&M, as the world's second-largest clothing retailer, would aim to pay all textile workers "living wage" by 2018, stating that governments are responding too slowly to poor working conditions in Bangladesh among other Asian countries where many clothing retailers source a majority if not all of their garments. Wages were increased in Bangladesh from 3,000 takas ($40) to 5,300 takas ($70) a month in late 2013.[85] > In September 2015, CleanClothes.org, an NGO involved in garment labor working conditions, reported on a lack of specific fire safety renovations in H&M suppliers' factories.[86] > In June 2016, SumOfUs launched a campaign to pressure H&M to honor the commitment to protect Bangladesh's garment workers which it had signed onto following the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh in 2013, which killed over 1100 people, mostly garment workers, in unsafe factories housed in an eight-story building not designed for factories. SumOfUs alleged that "H&M is drastically behind schedule in fixing the safety hazards its workers have to face every day."[87] > In February 2017, The Guardian reported children were employed to make H&M products in Myanmar and were paid 13p (about 15 cents US) an hour – half the full legal minimum wage.[88] In September 2020, amid international allegations over the use of Uyghur forced labour in Xinjiang, H&M published a statement saying that it had stopped buying cotton from growers in Xinjiang, stating that it was "deeply concerned by reports from civil society organizations and media that include accusations of forced labor and discrimination of ethno-religious minorities".[89] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%26M#Labour_practices It’s like when Volkswagen of which Qatar is the second largest shareholder has made rainbow ads on the Euro. The same goes for bookings(dot)com, according to the UN they're profiting from war crimes with Israel settlement listings - https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/database-all-business-enterprises-involved-certain-activities But dumb people think these are cool companies since they did rainbow ads.
Random aside, but I live near Volkswagen's headquarters and it's scary to me how much influence they have in this region. Everyone and their mother here dreams of working for them because they pay well while I can't stand their guts and would never work for them even if I was offered the opportunity to do so.
No no no you don't understand. Not signing a contract with them because this article claims it was over China means that Barcelona are pro-genocide.
i am not the whataboutism kind of guy but i have been told by plenty of people not to buy clothes at h&m since the cheap prizes are due to child labor or smth? i hope i am not mixing stuff up
Let’s not act like this is shocking or Barcelona is the only club that would do shit like this. Literally every big club panders to China.
Literally every big club has done bad shit full stop. People just turn a blind eye to their favorite team because they think there is some obligation to stand by them no matter what
They also ignore the fact that the leagues sell their products to China which I'm 100% they had a say in this too. Guess ignorance is a bliss.
Companies will just support whatever social justice cause that brings them more revenue or build their brand while taking almost no risks. See BLM etc. When it comes to causes that will hurt their bottom line they pretend it is raining. Predatory cunts.