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? Marchingggg Onnnn To Burma.... ?

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Leeds United to tour Myanmar despite military crackdown

 

Leeds United will go on a post-season tour of Myanmar, despite an ongoing military crackdown in the country.

The two games scheduled for May are in areas in which Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) guidance is to "check travel advice before travelling".

The FCO advises against "all but essential travel" in some other areas of Myanmar, also known as Burma.

The United Nations described the issues in the northern Rakhine province as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

The Championship club's social media accounts have advised fans "to wait for further advice" before arranging travel to the country.

 

The two matches will be on 9 and 11 May against a Myanmar National League All-Star team in Yangon, also known as Rangoon, and the country's national team in Mandalay.

"Myanmar is one of the fastest growing nations in South East Asia and is passionate about English football," said Leeds managing director Angus Kinnear.

"They have ambitious goals for grassroots and elite football development that we are delighted to be able to support. This tour gives us an opportunity to meet new fans of football who will hopefully support our journey back to the Premier League in the coming years."

Leeds say players and coaches will run football sessions with local children and will visit cultural sites, such as Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, and the Maha Myat Muni Pagoda in Mandalay.

Nearly 700,000 of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority have fled the country since August because of ongoing military operations in Rakhine.

Myanmar's government, which does not give the Rohingya citizenship and sees them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, says it is fighting militants and has denied targeting civilians.

 

Analysis

BBC Radio Leeds commentator Adam Pope

I have spoken to Leeds about the trip, which is sponsored by a bank. The region has a population of around 50 million people and is seen as a market of interest and one that can afford the visit of Leeds, as opposed to top Premier League clubs who regularly go to wealthier areas of Asia.

The president of the Myanmar FA/League is a wealthy industrialist and, along with the rest of Asia, is Premier League-obsessed. Leeds see this as a chance to grow the club.

Stadiums have been checked and will comply to Fifa standards, with tickets expected to be a few dollars and crowds hoped to be around 20,000 fans.

Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani has a business interest in the region with his company Eleven Sports.

In terms of health issues, Myanmar, like lots of Asia and other areas in the world, has problems with the Zika virus. I am told players will be tested and that the relevant medical care will be in operation.

The first-team squad will be travelling to Myanmar except for those on World Cup and international duty such as Pontus Jansson. The club also see it as a chance to give more game time to those returning from injury, such as Luke Ayling and Adam Forshaw, in what would have been the play-off period.

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Obviously not adverse to promoting a country that's currently going through a period of murdering and torture based ethnic cleansing lol 

 

Worth noting the Leeds Chairman is very close friends with one of the richest men in Burma. 

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This is bonkers on all sorts of levels. Clubs complaining on the one hand about too many games, then arranging tours all over the place (not just Leeds of course). And to go to a country like Burma is ethnically questionable too.

 

A quick scan of the Leeds forum shows that their fans are hardly enthusiastic about it either...

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Probably organised by the same people who walked into the office one day saying "Got an idea for a new badge".

 

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"Got an idea for pre-season - let's go on tour of Myanmar."

 

"But it's still in political and military chaos and is currently ethnic cleansing Rohingya Muslims"

 

"It isn't!"

 

"It is!"

 

"Is it?!"

Edited by urban.spaceman
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To those that think the winter break will make any sort of difference to the fitness and rest levels of players just need to look at this as an example.

 

Any winter break will just see clubs jetting off all over the world to play cash cow 'friendlies' - they'll be more tired with the implementation of a winter break than without it!

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As much as this is a very well written PR piece... you can't fault him for some of the points he has made...

 

OPEN LETTER FROM ANDREA RADRIZZANI

Open letter from Andrea Radrizzani.

Dear Leeds United supporters and the football community,

I wanted to take this opportunity to give more background on the Club’s trip to Myanmar in May.

I have spent over 10 years living in Asia and Myanmar is a country I have visited on many occasions. I am aware of the serious issues within the country, but I also know that it is a beautiful place filled with incredibly warm and welcoming people. It is somewhere very close to my heart.

 

I also want to be clear that I am active in the Southeast Asia region with ongoing business practices that provide jobs and help to develop the local sports and media sectors. I have similar goals for Myanmar, along with many other British businesses that trade with and operate in the country presently.

 

Football is extremely popular in Myanmar and I believe the game we all love has the power to help developing nations by bringing people together, especially young people. That is why I wanted to take the team on a post-season tour to play matches and run coaching clinics with children from the area.


The Club is not receiving any fee to play. Rather I see this both as a personal initiative to support local football and a way to introduce the name of Leeds United in the fastest growing country in Southeast Asia.

 

I believe the tour will have a positive impact on the local community in parts of the country we intend to visit. This was a carefully considered decision and we knew it would be controversial, but this is about people not governments.

 

It has never been my intention, nor that of the club, to get involved in a political debate in Myanmar. However, if because of the tour we further highlight the ongoing serious issues in certain areas of the country, then maybe that is a positive thing.

 

We simply want to use sport to do some good. I am proud to be active in another region in Southeast Asia where I support via Play For Change, a local NGO in Nepal, in providing sports and educational activities to over 4000 underprivileged children.

 

We can’t spread our values by turning our backs, we can only do this by engaging. We will go to Myanmar to share the famous values and ethos of Leeds United Football Club.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Andrea Radrizzani

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Me and @Basingstoke Fox were in Sheffield city centre the other day and some lasses starting shouting "Leeds" at us so we started singing Marching on together, they said something about not being from Leeds, naturally. I don't think you'd get that with any other club in the country, completely unaffiliated people chanting a team's name. Worra club.

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