Handling a delicate matter

MESUT Ozil (pic) of English football club Arsenal has come under fire for voicing his support for Uighur Muslims in China whom he likened to “warriors who resist persecution”. Arsenal swiftly tried to distance itself from Ozil in a bid to safeguard relations with China, a country in which the club has numerous commercial interests.

For the purposes of this letter, what should be interrogated is the act of voicing out an opinion on a sensitive matter when one is attached to an organisation, in this case a football club. What are the stakes involved? The issue of the persecution of Uighurs in Xinjiang and counter-narratives have already been presented extensively elsewhere.