Former Chinese Super League striker Demba Ba calls on football to condemn Uygur treatment
- Senegal striker, who spent three years in China with Shanghai Shenhua, wants to organise effort for players to speak out
- ‘If we get together and talk, things change. If we stand up, people stand up with us,’ he tells BBC
Former English Premier League and Chinese Super League footballer Demba Ba has called on his fellow players to criticise China’s treatment of Uygur Muslims in Xinjiang.
Ba, who played for Shanghai Shenhua from 2015 to 2018 before moving to Turkey, told the BBC that he wants to organise the effort to highlight the alleged human rights abuses in the region.
“I have to try to organise something so football players can get together and, in the meantime, talk about this matter because not a lot of people want to,” he said.
“I know there are footballers who want to fight for justice, whether Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, any belief,” the practising Muslim told BBC Sport.
“As sportspeople, we have a power we don’t even know. If we get together and talk, things change. If we stand up, people stand up with us.”
