Movement to remove Barclays from football gains momentum

‘Soccer is meant to be primarily based on values of equity and equality – a financial institution enabling grave human rights abuses has no place within the stunning recreation.’

With the brand new soccer season underway, a motion urging the Premier League and Ladies’s Tremendous League to sever their ties with Barclays Financial institution, citing the financial institution’s alleged involvement in funding corporations linked to human rights abuses, is gaining traction. Activists argue {that a} sport constructed on values of equity and equality shouldn’t be related to an establishment that they declare allows grave violations of those ideas.

Barclays Financial institution has partnered with the Premier League for over 23 years and has been the primary title sponsor of the Ladies’s Tremendous League since 2019. Nevertheless, current revelations have sparked widespread requires Barclays to be faraway from soccer sponsorship altogether.

In current months, Barclays has confronted criticism over offering monetary providers to defence corporations supplying Israel. In Could, a report by the Palestine Solidarity Marketing campaign (PSC), Marketing campaign In opposition to Arms Commerce, and Struggle on Need, uncovered Barclays’ monetary ties to corporations that produce weapons and army expertise utilized in Israel’s assaults on Palestinians.  In keeping with the report, the financial institution invests over £100m in Normal Dynamics, which gives gun programs for the fighter jets utilized by Israel to bomb Gaza. It additionally invests £2.7mn in Elbit Techniques, which provides the Israeli army with armoured drones, munitions, and artillery weapons utilized in its assaults on Palestinians.

These findings have led to rising criticism of Barclays. Following protests from activists, bands, and followers calling for a boycott of the financial institution, Barclays introduced in June that it might droop its sponsorship of all Reside Nation festivals in 2024. This suspension, nevertheless, doesn’t prolong to the whole thing of the financial institution’s five-year sponsorship take care of Reside Nation, signed in 2023. The choice was welcomed by pro-Palestine and environmental teams, together with Greenpeace UK. Areeba Hamid, co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, acknowledged: “Reside Nation have completed the appropriate factor by stepping away from their Barclays sponsorship. It’s time for Barclays to cease hiding behind the music and face it as an alternative. This financial institution is the largest fossil gasoline funder in Europe, bankrolling oil and fuel to the tune of billions of kilos and has now been linked to arms corporations concerned within the battle in Gaza. By placing an finish to the greenwashing, pageant organisers are sending a transparent sign to Barclays that it’s time they took duty for the harmful industries they fund.”

In keeping with the marketing campaign’s analysis, Barclays holds £2 billion in shares and gives monetary providers price £6.1 billion to 9 corporations that offer weapons and army expertise to Israel, that are utilized in assaults on Palestinians.

A letter signed by over 20,000 supporters has been despatched to Premier League bosses, urging them to finish their sponsorship offers with Barclays.

“The gorgeous recreation shouldn’t be used to supply cowl for a financial institution enabling grave violations of worldwide regulation and human rights. Please affirm you’ll finish the league’s sponsorship take care of Barclays, the letter concludes.