Tibet Water Campaign: Success!

Contact is taking a holiday!

Contact is taking a break after 25 years of bringing you news of Tibet and Tibetan issues. We are celebrating our 25 years by bringing you the story of Contact and the people who have made it happen, and our archive is still there for you to access at any time, and below you can read the story of Contact, how it came into being and the wonderful reflections of the people who have made it happen over the years.

When and how Contact will re-emerge and evolve will be determined by those who become involved.

By Mary Trewartha / September 26, 2018;

Tibet Water was not shown as a sponsor here

Liverpool Football Club has caved in to pressure from Tibet campaigners and has chosen not to renew its controversial sponsorship deal with Tibet Water Resources Ltd (TWRL).

TWRL extracts water from sources high in the Himalayas, exploiting Tibet’s precious resources and bringing no benefits to the Tibetan people, all the profits go to China. The deal with Liverpool FC was lucrative to both the club and to TWRL but over 86,000 people signed a petition calling on the club to drop the deal, pointing out that by working in partnership with TWRL, Liverpool FC was supporting China’s military occupation of Tibet and its flaunting of human rights there.

The petition was organised by consumer watchdog SumOfUs and supported by 28 Tibetan civil society organisations from around the world, including Free Tibet and Tibet Society UK. Liverpool FC’s supporters and fans also lobbied the club management to drop the deal.

The football club management did not respond to repeated requests for meetings and ignored the mobile billboard driven around the streets of Anfield highlighting that Tibetans are tortured under Chinese rule. However, they quietly dropped the deal at the beginning of the new Premier League season.

Gloria Montgomery, Head of Advocacy and Campaigns at Tibet Society said: “This is a massive victory for Tibetans and the nearly 90,000 people globally who called on Liverpool FC to ditch the deal […] Liverpool FC’s directors have now been forced to listen to these demands, including from their own fans, and put the Tibetan people before profits.”