Protest planned to call on Liverpool to end a sponsorship deal

A protest calling for Liverpool’s principal owner John W Henry to cancel a sponsorship deal with Tibet Water Resources will be held before Sunday’s visit of Premier League leaders Manchester City.

As part of a campaign led by Tibet groups and international consumer group SumOfUs a mobile billboard will be paraded through the streets en route to the game at Anfield.

It will display the message “Under Chinese rule, Tibetans are beaten and tortured for their beliefs. John W. Henry: Your deal with Tibet Water legitimises the torture of Tibetans. Liverpool FC: Do we think this is okay?”

Liverpool signed a deal last July for Tibet Water Resources to be their official regional water partner in China.

In October the Free Tibet group launched a campaign against the partnership, with a petition calling on Liverpool to scrap it receiving over 80,000 signatures, and protesters are using Sunday’s high-profile Premier League encounter to re-iterate their message.

Liverpool have not commented on this weekend’s protest but a statement issued by Tibet Water Resources when the issue was first raised in October said: “As recently as 2016 The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released a report ’China National Human Development Report’, which specifically recognises that our company has helped measurably improve Tibetans’ livelihoods by providing more job opportunities, building local facilities, as well as supporting local education, medical care and poverty alleviation.

“As a Hong Kong-listed company we comply with all regulatory issues with periodic disclosure of our operating performance.”