Football should follow Mesut Ozil’s lead and stop supporting sportswashing

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Regardless of whether you like Mesut Ozil or not, whether you think he is a waste of space on the pitch and we should get rid, we should all be standing with him over his comments about China.

On Friday, Ozil posted a message on his criticises China’s treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang.

The treatment the Uighur Muslim minority in western China has been labelled as the ‘atrocity of the century’ with reports that up to 3 million people are being held in “modern day” concentration camps.

Leading Uighur activist Rushan Abbas described the situation back in 2018.

“[It is] not just the 3 million people in the concentration camps facing mental and physical torture, forced intense indoctrinations, forced medications, food and sleep deprivation, [but] even the people at large … living outside, are facing a complete surveillance police state.”

The United Nations and human rights groups estimate that between one million and two million people, mostly ethnic Uighur Muslims, have been detained in harsh conditions in Xinjiang as part of what Beijing calls an anti-terrorism campaign.

The first Uighur camp was built in 2014, and much of the world has turned a blind eye to what is happening. Most of the world are actually unaware of what is happening, with countries across the globe continuing to do business with China in the same way they were doing business with Germany in the late 1930s, despite the first Nazi concentration camp being built in 1933.

It has taken Ozil’s Instagram post to bring the plight of the Turkic ethnic group into the world domain.

Posting the words against the backdrop of the flag of the short-lived East Turkestan republic, an area that is now Chinese-controlled Xinjiang, he called Uighurs “warriors who resist persecution” and criticised both China’s crackdown and the silence of Muslims in response. “(In China) Qurans are burned, mosques were closed down, Islamic theological schools, madrasas were banned, religious scholars were killed one by one. Despite all this, Muslims stay quiet,”

In response to Ozil’s comments, China’s state broadcaster CCTV pulled the broadcast of Arsenal’s Premier League game against Manchester City.

Ozil has seen his China-based “M10” fan club shut down, his social media accounts blocked and almost all trace of his name removed from Chinese search engine results.

Several Chinese football fan sites have said they will stop posting news related to Ozil, according to the Shanghai-based publication The Paper. A Chinese football simulation game said it would no longer produce Özil player roles or cards.

Fans in China have labelled Ozil a “dirty ant” and posted videos of them burning his shirts.

In a comment that has since been deleted, the editor of the Global Times, Hu Xijin, accused the footballer of essentially calling for global jihad against China. Asking Özil to provide examples of his allegations, Hu wrote: “This man is full of nonsense. Does he just want to encourage global jihad, using Xinjiang as an excuse?”

Ozil has been brave standing up to what he clearly feels are human rights breaches that are currently being ignored by the global community.

China’s record on human rights is one of the worst in the world. Like many other countries with poor records, they have been attempting to use sport to improve its reputation in something that is known as sportswashing.

From the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing through to Qatar 2022, sportswashing is becoming more common as authorities and clubs put aside their morals and values to sell their sport to the highest bidder.

Last weekend saw the world title heavyweight clash between anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz take place in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s relatively sudden interest in sports can be construed as a soft power tactic to help distract from the kingdom’s ongoing human rights abuses and the Yemen crisis.

The kingdom has hosted the Race of Champions (ROC) motorsport event, secured a long-term deal with the WWE that includes multiple shows a year, hosted boxing events headlined by stars like Amir Khan, hosted a PGA European Tour golf event.

Azerbaijani is another nation using sport as a distraction from what is actually happening in their country.

Despite human rights infringements, a lack of press freedom, a clear threat of terrorism and Azerbaijan being labelled as “not free”; the likes of UEFA, the IAAF and the FIA have all awarded Azerbaijan major events in recent years, including the recent Europa League final.

Back to Ozil and China, clubs across Europe have turned a blind eye to human rights issues for a long time. They chase money agreeing to play friendlies in China, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia.

Every club should now stand with Ozil over his comments. Stand with the Uighur Muslim’s, stand with those who have been detained, killed elsewhere across the globe for having a different religion, race or sexuality.

Amnesty International recently called for “clubs – the coaches, players, and backroom staff – to use their considerable influence to press for greater recognition of human rights.”

Ozil is in the right highlighting a human rights issue in China. Imagine how much more powerful the message would be if, following China’s boycott of Arsenal, the Premier League stood together as one and boycotted China.

No more selling TV rights to the country, no more holding money-spinning friendlies there. Not until they have sorted themselves out. Cleaned up their act. Stopped detaining millions for simply following another religion.

Standing together will not happen, however.

Take a look at Manchester City. Current Premier League champions.

The City Football Group, who own the club, Abu Dhabi United Group and a consortium of Chinese state-backed investment firms. Are they really going to take a stand against what is happening in nations across the globe when they are owned by those states committing the atrocities?

Until clubs and the authorities grow a pair and stop selling themselves to the highest bidder, it will be up to the likes of Mesut Ozil to bravely stand on his own and speak up for those who have no voice.

Ozil might polarise support on the pitch, but we should stand with him when it comes to speaking up against human right breaches.

I stand with Ozil.

Keenos

Match Report: Arsenal 0 – 3 Manchester City

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Arsenal (0) 0 Manchester City (3) 3
Premier League
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Sunday, 15th December 2019. Kick-off time: 4.30pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Calum Chambers, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Sead Kolašinac; Mattéo Guendouzi, Lucas Torreira; Nicolas Pépé, Mesut Özil, Gabriel Martinelli; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Substitutes: Alexandre Lacazette, David Luiz, Reiss Nelson, Emiliano Martínez, Joe Willock, Emile Smith-Rowe, Bukayo Saka.
Yellow Cards: Sokratis Papastathopoulos
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 42%
Referee: Paul Tierney
Attendance: circa 45,000

Following our superb win over West Ham United last Monday, it remained critical for us to keep the momentum and aura of victory alive, despite our injury issues. Would we be able to continue in the same vein? The answer became fairly obvious as it took just ninety seconds from the start of the match for the visitors to state their intent in North London today. As usual, we were caught on the break and Gabriel Jesus crossed from the left for Kevin De Bruyne to whack the ball into the roof of our net, and as usual our defenders looked below par and completely off the pace so early in the game. We looked all at sea immediately after this setback, so much so that by a quarter an hour later, a second goal was conceded when we were hemmed in, in and around our own penalty area. Phil Foden played a clever ball to Kevin de Bruyne, who quickly passed it to Raheem Sterling, who made no mistake in doubling his side’s lead.

The stadium became subdued as our wonderful, long-suffering supporters yet again faced the ignomony of a visiting side dominating the play constantly and consistently as the match wore on. We created poor movement both on and off the ball, and we were punished badly for our intransigence. To make matters even worse, Manchester City midfielder Rodri scythed full-back Sead Kolašinac, which not only led to his booking, but our man hobbling from the pitch to be replaced by Bukayo Saka, who of course, is not a defender in any way, shape or form. And still the merciless Mancunians came at us, relentless as ever. With five minutes left on the clock before the break, Kevin de Bruyne made it 0-3 to the visitors with a clean and classy shot from some distance. He almost collected his hat-trick just before the half-time whistle blew, when a blistering shot from about twenty yards was turned onto the post by Bernd Leno, who made an acrobatic, world-class save to halt the visitors’ first half scoring jamboree. When Paul Tierney called a halt to the proceedings a minute or two later, the howls of derision from the Arsenal supporters, which have sadly become almost de rigueur these days at the Emirates, echoed around the stadium.

To be fair, we started the second half with certainly more purpose than we did the first, as we attempted to create some good play in and around the midfield; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang came close with a header supplied from an Ainsley Maitland-Niles cross, and despite a sneaky tackle by Nicolas Otamendi on Gabriel Martinelli, the loose ball came to Lucas Torreira, who blasted the ball over the Manchester City bar. The visitors dominated the game again, and in an attempt to help redress the balance, the ineffective Mesut Özil was replaced by young Emile Smith-Rowe, and despite some interesting passing movements, we were simply playing for pride now.

Manchester City simply consolidated their dominance with tedious possession play, and with ten minutes of the match remaining, Joe Willock replaced Lucas Torreira as the crowd started their sad and disappointed exodus from the stadium. The visitors merely toyed with us for the rest of the match, whilst we played catch-up with the Premiership champions. When the final whistle went after three minutes’ injury time, a strange sense of relief fell over the stadium.

What a mess. It’s hard to remember when we saw anything quite as awful as this appalling run of performances; no heart, no guts, no clue, no ideas. Poor Freddie Ljungberg. Talk about a fall guy in the middle. He has been totally stranded and left to get on with things, by the owners and the players too; how do we square this circle? The answer is, we can’t. The players are demoralised and most of them are not good enough to play for Arsenal, and the ones that are, have probably already instructed their agents to get them new clubs for next season. As a club we are in freefall, and it’s starting to be hard to know where our next points will come from; the stats do not lie, with just one shot on target on the visitors’ goal, we know that we are now in serious trouble. Just who is going to want to manage us now? The owners are not interested in anything else but revenue, and as long as they are at the helm, we will just coast and eventually become a mid-table club, or God, forbid, something far, far worse could await. What price history? Remember everyone, keep the faith, stick with the winners.

Our next match: Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday, 21st December at 12.30pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.

MAtch report: Standard Liege 2 Arsenal 2

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Standard Liège (0) 2 Arsenal (0) 2
UEFA Europa League, Group F, Matchday 6 of 6
Stade Maurice Dufrasne, Rue de la Centrale 2, 4000 Liège, Belgium
Thursday, 12th December 2019. Kick-off time: 5.55pm
(4-2-3-1) Emiliano Martínez; Sokratis Papastathopoulos, David Luiz, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Ainsley Maitland-Niles; Joe Willock, Mattéo Guendouzi; Bukayo Saka, Reiss Nelson, Emile Smith-Rowe; Alexandre Lacazette.
Substitutes: Bernd Leno, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Calum Chambers, Gabriel Martinelli, Tyreece John-Jules, Zak Medley, James Olayinka.
Scorers: Alexandre Lacazette (78 mins), Bukayo Saka (81 mins)
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 57%
Referee: Andreas Ekberg (Sweden)
Attendance: circa 27,000
Freddie Ljungberg’s team selection here in an extremely cold Liège evening, reflected both the confidence he feels with the team being top of Group F and with one eye on Sunday afternoon as well, which is also a good chance to have a look at some young players and their possible roles within his team structure.
Agreed, the home team had to beat Arsenal by a cricket score for us to be deposed from our position at the top of Group F, but there was surely no excuse for some sloppy play in the first half. And yet, despite all this, young Emile Smith-Rowe was extremely unlucky not to score after a quarter of an hour, and both Bukayo Saka and Reiss Nelson came close with their clever efforts. The conditions here in Liège were not exactly conducive to good football, with the ball bouncing and bobbling here and there, which made things doubly worse for our young side. Standard Liège never really looked as if they were at the races in the first forty-five minutes, but also we never capitalised on their poor performance with regards to goals scored.
Come the second half, and a different match was revealed. Within minutes of the restart, the home side took the lead with what could best be described as a most fortunate goal indeed. Samuel Bastien hit a ball from twenty yards towards our goal, and on its travels, took a ricochet from Sokratis Papastathopoulos and spun helplessly past Emiliano Martínez into the net for the first goal of the night. We became rather unsteady and unconfident after this setback, and did not create the play needed to equalise the scores.
To tell the truth, we looked patchy and indecisive, and on the sixty-ninth minute, another hammer blow to our ever-shaky confidence appeared. Incredibly, and unfortunately for us, it was another deflection that led us to be two down in this match. Just inside our penalty area, Selim Amallah’s shot caught the unlucky Konstantinos Mavropanos and yet again the ball took a different direction from what was expected by Emiliano Martínez and in the blink of an eye we were two down with twenty minutes left on the clock.
Our substitutes suddenly became technically important; Gabriel Martinelli for Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Calum Chambers replacing Ainsley Maitland-Niles meant that we were able to change the direction of the game in our favour. Nine minutes after going two down, Alexandre Lacazette scored a superb header from a Bukayo Saka cross, and then suddenly we were back in the match again. And so, three minutes later, with just nine minutes of the match remaining, Bukayo Saka, surely the Arsenal man of the match tonight, equalised the scores with an excellent right-footed shot; in another time and place, this goal would have been worthy of a trophy victory. But tonight, it enabled us to hold our heads high and head back to North London with a well-deserved draw.
Overall, this was truly a character-building match, with our young players showing what they were made of in difficult circumstances indeed. Make no mistake about it, it was great to come away from Belgium with a draw, when at times, quite frankly, we looked in trouble. It was a shame that we had to go two behind for us to wake up, spark up and drag something out of this match by the scruff of the neck. We will have more idea of how we are progressing when we host the Premiership champions on Sunday afternoon. All this and Christmas too. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, stick with the winners. Our next match: Manchester City at The Emirates on Sunday, 15th December at 4.30pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

 

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.