Thousands sign petition over Liverpool FC’s Tibet sponsorship deal

A 27,000-name petition has been raised to try to get Liverpool Football Club’s to ditch its sponsorship deal with the company Tibet Water Resources.

The petition is from Sum Of Us, an international consumer advocacy organisation with nearly one million members in the UK.

It is in response to what the organisation says is a brutal military occupation of Tibet by the Chinese military.

Liverpool FC signed the deal on July 24 which made Tibet Water the club’s official regional water partner in China and offers the company a range of promotional and marketing rights.

Sum Of Us’ petition is part of a larger campaign calling on Liverpool FC’s owner John W Henry to terminate the deal with Tibet Water due to ethical concerns over dealing with a company operating in occupied Tibet.

Other organizations, including Free Tibet and Tibet Society have written to Liverpool FC’s owner and directors to alert them to the serious situation in Tibet and how their deal with Tibet Water is harmful to both Tibetans and Liverpool FC’s reputation.

Over the course of a week, more than 27,000 people have added their support by signing the Sum Of Us petition.

Hanna Thomas, campaign and culture director at Sum Of Us, said: “Tibet Water owes its profits to the repression, torture and denial of basic political freedoms meted out by the Chinese military occupation of Tibet.

“Liverpool FC is normalising this brutal regime — lending it an air of legitimacy through its deal with Tibet Water.

“The club should be using its enormous power and wealth to promote basic freedoms and rights across the world, not help deny them.”

TheBusinessDesk.com has contacted Liverpool FC for comment.