The dark side of football is something that too often comes to light and there seems to be a shady relationship between Standard Chartered, the Wayuu community that Luis Diaz is a part of and a coal mine in Colombia.
It’s all part of a long and interesting read by Simon Hughes for The Athletic and shows how our major shirt sponsors are funding a coal mine that is helping to destroy the indigenous group that our number 23 and his family are a part of.
A brief excerpt from the story reads: ‘Every time Díaz wears a Liverpool shirt, whether in training or during a match, he is inadvertently advertising a sponsor with links to the Cerrejón mine.’
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It seems unfair to associate the 25-year-old with this story and almost seems to encourage him to boycott sponsors (Ted Lasso style), putting the striker in a difficult moral position.
If our jersey sponsors really are funding a mine that is said to have “severely damaged the environment and the health of the largest indigenous community in the country”, then it is something that needs to be addressed, and on a much larger scale.
This should not be something that falls on the shoulders of the former Porto player and should be tackled on a club-wide scale.
However, this news of the financing of a coal mine will not be something that those responsible for renewing the sponsorship of the British banking and financial services multinational have not heard before.
We have been with the same shirt sponsor for 13 years and that is a moral and economic decision that the club has taken; if a player decides that they don’t agree, it could greatly damage the relationship we have with them.
No one would stand in Luis Diaz’s way if he wanted to protest the company he helps advertise and his teammates are likely to back him as well, as well as Jurgen Klopp and his coaching staff.
It doesn’t look like we’re on the cusp of a player revolt against a shirt sponsor, but this article suggests there’s plenty of ammunition for them, should our Colombian striker decide to go for it.
You can see the story via @Simon_Hughes__ on Twitter:
Liverpool shirt sponsor Standard Chartered have provided £6.18bn of funding to a company that owns a mine that is causing “irreparable damage” to the town of Luis Diaz and the surrounding area. Research by @jwhitey98. https://t.co/N4IFJTCC2K
— Simon Hughes (@Simon_Hughes__) September 5, 2022
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