Sponsorship puts sport in the firing line
As fears over Hong Kong rise …
ORGANISATIONS which take sponsorship money from HSBC and Standard Chartered have drawn sharp criticism over their silence on the banks’ position in Hong Kong.
The two lenders raise their profile by sponsoring sporting events and teams, such as the Wimbledon tennis championships and Liverpool FC.
But the banks’ reputations are being tarnished after both declared their support for a draconian national security law which is being imposed by China on Hong Kong.
Critics – including the UK and US governments – believe the law will erode vital freedoms and human rights in the territory. And while MPs have lined up to condemn HSBC and Standard Chartered’s ‘kowtowing’ to Beijing, their partner organisations have refused to say a word.
HSBC is the title sponsor of the World Rugby Sevens Series and the World Golf
Championships, and a patron of The Open golf tournament.
It has been the ‘official banking supplier’ to the Wimbledon tennis tournament since 2007, is in the final year of its partnership with British Cycling, and recently became ‘principal global partner’ of the Badminton World Federation. Standard Chartered has been Liverpool FC’s main sponsor for a decade, with their emblem displayed prominently on the team’s shirt. The deal was renewed for four years in 2018 for £160m. Standard Chartered also sponsors eight marathons, including Jersey’s and Dubai’s, and the London Great City Race.
When approached by the Mail, all of the organisations refused to comment on whether they would be raising concerns with the banks. A source at one of the sporting events said it was simply ‘not our business’, and that it did not give any weight to the banks’ position on the erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong.
Labour peer Lord Adonis said: ‘Obviously Wimbledon, Liverpool FC and other sporting organisations should not be accepting sponsorship from banks which are now apologists for the Chinese dictatorship seeking to destroy the rule of law in Hong Kong.’
Lord Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong between 1992 and 1997 when it was under British control, said he did not want to comment on individual companies.
But he added: ‘They know perfectly well that it’s incomprehensible that any government in an open society would behave towards Chinese companies in the way that the Chinese Communist regime is acting towards companies with links with the West, or shareholders in the West. They might think on that for a moment.’
Referencing a Polish former foreign minister who was once held prisoner by the Nazis, Patten said: ‘When Wladyslaw Bartoszewski was asked what his advice was to people in this position, he implied that he wasn’t going to tell them how to behave bravely.
‘But he did say: “Just try to behave decently”.’
HSBC received a sharp rebuke from Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg this week, who said the bank may be ‘more closely aligned to the Chinese government than Her Majesty’s Government’. And Donald Trump’s chief foreign affairs adviser, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said HSBC was allowing itself to be used as ‘political leverage against London’.
Aviva Investors is the only major shareholder to speak on HSBC and Standard Chartered, saying it was ‘uneasy’ with their positions. Both lenders refused to comment further.
‘Just try to behave decently’