Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has pledged to keep speaking up about injustices after his recent passionate speech about wars provoked criticism in some quarters.
The Manchester City boss reiterated that he condemns all conflicts across the globe and respects all opinions, but he said it was important to keep speaking out because the world wants people to stay silent.
Guardiola used his last pre-match press conference to speak out against issues such as ICE’s killing of protesters in Minnesota and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and he criticised journalists for not asking him more about issues beyond football.
He had said: “Never, ever in the history of humanity have we had the info in front of our eyes, watching more clearly than now, genocide in Palestine, what happened in Ukraine, what happened in Russia, what happened all around the world, in Sudan, everywhere.
READ ALSO:
What happened in front of us? Do you want to see it? It’s our problems as human beings. There is somebody who sees the images from all around the world who is not affected? Today we can see it. Before, we could not see it. Today we see. It hurts me.”
His words in particular about Israel’s war in Gaza provoked a dressing down from a Manchester Jewish Group, who urged him to “focus on football” and “be more careful with his future language”. When asked about the criticism on Friday ahead of City’s next match against Liverpool, Guardiola defended his words.
Guardiola told a press conference: “To be honest, I didn’t say anything or anything special. I don’t feel that. Why can I not express what I feel, just because I’m a [football] manager? I don’t agree.
But I respect absolutely all opinions. What I said basically is how many conflicts there are right now, all around the globe, around the world. How many? A lot, right? I condemn all of them.
All of them. Innocent people being killed? I condemn all of them. I don’t put that one selection is more important than the other ones, or this country more important than the other one. No. Don’t you understand my message? It’s fine. I cannot say otherwise…”
