Premier League
The British government condemns the Mansour-Assad meeting
The meeting between Sheikh Mansour, the owner of Manchester City and Deputy Prime Minister, and Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian President, has provoked strong criticism from the British government, in the person of the owner of the “citizens”, as Assad is a leader of ally of Vladimir Putin Civil war has been raging in Syria for eleven years. A UK MP is questioning whether Mansour is fit to run a football club and should be investigated.
The British government has criticized Sheikh Mansour, the owner of Manchester City, for meeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to the BBC.
Syria has been locked in a civil war since March 2011 and the Assad regime has been the target of atrocities in the conflict, with the Syrian President enjoying excellent relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has come under fire from the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.
Assad is visiting the UAE for the first time since war broke peace in Syria, British officials say.
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates is Sheikh Mansour, who also owns Manchester City. Assad has been meeting with him in recent days, along with of course other UAE officials.
The British Foreign Office criticized the meeting in a statement to Athletic: “EThe UK firmly believes that unless the behavior of the Syrian regime changes, strengthening ties (including Syria and the United Arab Emirates) undermines the prospect of a durable and inclusive peace in Syria.“.
On the same wavelength is the British Special Envoy for Syria, Jonathan Hargreaves, who tweeted, among other things: “After 11 years of conflict, the unreformed and unrepentant Assad regime continues to commit atrocities against the Syrian people.
Without behavioral change, the commitment only serves to undermine collective efforts to encourage Assad to engage in the political process by giving good faith support to the UN. The UK remains opposed to any normalization of relations with the Syrian regime“.
In fact, Chris Bryant, a Member of Parliament in the UK, is wondering if Mansour is fit to own a football club and would be good to investigate, he told the Telegraph.
It is recalled that the UK government imposed sanctions on Roman Abramovich for his relations with Vladimir Putin. In this case, the owner of City is tightening ties with an ally of the Russian president.
I am a sports writer and journalist who has written for various online publications including Sportish. I’m originally from the UK but currently live in Toronto, Canada. I’m also an author on Sportish and have written several articles on a variety of sports-related topics.