When people talk about human rights abuses, out of interest where are the links to City's owners etc made? Is it just a case of, it's happening in Abu Dhabi and they are therefore linked? Or is it guilty by association?
Its crazy as even if we accept UAE has questionable human rights standards by UK standards,In general the UAE is more tolerant than must countries in that region, take Iran where recently a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer Sotoudeh was prosecuted for taking off their mandatory headscarf and subsequently sentenced to 38 years in jail and 148 lashes by the Iranian regime. It should be criticised politically, however if one is really going to look for an angle to bring an association of such abuse to justify criticism of a sporting team, an investigative sports journalist wouldn't be too hard pushed to find multiple punishments( as in actually found guilty) instances of Standard Chartered laundering billions of $ on behalf of the Iranian regime.
Ironically Standard Chartered are a member of Global Banking Alliance for Women whilst funding perhaps one of the must oppressive regimes against women in the world. In addition to funding the Iranian regime which by the standards of today's sports journalism represents condoning the actions of abusing human right and oppression of woman they also fund Liverpool as primary sponsors which has been renewed even after Standard Chartered were found guilty of laundering cash on behalf of Iran. So if City as a club and fans can be criticised for UAE's actions then surely the bigger story an investigative journalists should be going for is Liverpool FC putting profit over decency in renewing a financial relationship with an organisation that has been found guilty of profiting by directly supporting an oppressive regime.