Petition calling on Barcelona to drop shirt sponsor hits 40,000 in 24 hours (Telegraph.co.uk)

July 13, 2015

Online plea asks Catalan club to remove Qatari Airways from their strip until conditions improve for female workers

An online petition calling on FC Barcelona to ditch shirt sponsor Qatar Airways unless it ‘treats its workers fairly’ has reached over 40,000 signatures in less than 24 hours.

The plea asks last year’s Spanish treble winners to take a stand against the poor conditions it claims female Qatari workers face on the airline.

It says: “The women who work for Qatar Airways face an extremely grim reality: cabin crew are being exploited, imprisoned without charge, forcibly confined on company premises and automatically sacked if they become pregnant.

“These abuses are an everyday event not only in Qatar Airlines but in the Qatari national employment system.”

It goes on to ask that the Catalan club uses its position of power to leverage more rights for the under-represented workers, saying: “Barcelona’s millions of fans see the team as ‘more than a club’, revered not only for the quality of its players – like Neymar, Andrés Iniesta and of course, Lionel Messi – but for its allegiance to ethics, fairness and social justice.

“That’s why we’re asking the world’s most respected football club to cut ties with the airline until workers conditions improve.”

One of the signatories, Christopher D, left a comment on the page, saying: “Long time supporter of Barcelona. It hurts that they would even consider having this abomination on their shirt. QATAR AIRWAYS MUST GO!!!!!”

Barca didn’t have any sponsor at all until it signed a 5-year partnership with UNICEF in 2006, but it has since introduced the high-profile corporate sponsors.

The club signed a €150m deal with the Qatar Foundation ahead of the 2011/12 season, which was then replaced by Qatar Airways for the 2013/14 season.

The sumofus.com petition can be found here.

See the original article here

 

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