Barcelona have been asked to prove that they are ‘more than a club’ as their motto goes, as one of their partners comes under pressure following their plans for a mine in Turkey.
Limak, the Turkish firm which are renovating Camp Nou, are in the process of expanding a coal mine in the Abkelen Forest in Northern Turkey, close to the Black Sea.
Activists have told Reuters that the forest will be completely destroyed by Limak if they are allowed to complete their clearance of the forest. Meanwhile RAC1 report that environmental activists and locals protesting the mine have written to Barcelona asking them to prove that they do indeed care about social causes and the environment, as they claim.
Those activists were teargassed by the Turkish police last week, as they courts say there is no legal basis to stop the construction of the mine, not taking into account the climate crisis which is driving millions of migrants towards towards Turkey. The Environmental Committee of Ikizkoy claim that Limak are also violating human rights and the agreements set out in the Paris Accord. They want Barcelona to apply pressure on Limak in order to prevent those plans going ahead.
During Barcelona’s first spell, President Joan Laporta was keen to export the ‘Mes que un club’ slogan around the world, but in the meantime their charity sponsorship has been relegated to the back of the shirt and was replaced by Qatari State company Qatar Foundation under Sandro Rosell.
Laporta then campaigned on that basis during the 2015 presidential elections, saying under his leadership, he would not deal with organisations that raised human rights concerns. This appears to no longer be the case, after he received the Chairman of Qatari business Baladi Express, and the two spoke about future business together.
