Pep Guardiola misses Man City press conference after giving speech at pro-Palestine event in Barcelona

Reported by The Times, Guardiola spoke at a rally in Barcelona on Thursday and ‘urged people not to turn a blind eye’ to the suffering happening in Gaza. The event took place during a charity concert at Palau Sant Jordi sports arena and saw Guardiola speak out in support of Palestine not for the first time, after the Man City manager had previously issued statements on Palestinian children affected by the war. On Thursday, he wore a traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarf as he spoke in front of 12,000 people in Barcelona.

The speech came just 24 hours after Guardiola had led his City side to finishing in the top eight of the Champions League and automatic qualification for the last 16, thanks to a 2-0 victory over Galatasaray at the Etihad which saw City pip the likes of Real Madrid, PSG and Newcastle United into eighth spot. Guardiola’s side face Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon and Lijnders confirmed that the Cityzens boss will be back in Manchester in time for the match.

Guardiola said in his ‘impassioned’ speech: “When I see a child in these past two years with these images on social media, on television, recording himself, pleading, ‘Where is my mother?’ among the rubble and he still doesn’t know it… I always think: ‘What must they be thinking?’ And I think we have left them alone, abandoned. I always imagine them saying, ‘Where are you? Come help us’.

“And even now, we haven’t done it. Perhaps because those in power are cowards, because they basically send innocent young people to kill innocent people. That is what cowards do. Because they are in their homes, with heating when it’s cold and air conditioning when it’s hot.

“We must take a step forward. Simply being present alone means so much — so very, very much. What bombs cause — and what they want to cause — is silence, and for us to look the other way. That is their only goal: that we do not take a step forward. And this is what we must resist. We must simply not look the other way; we must get involved and participate.

“We stand before the world to show that, naturally, we are on the side of the weaker — who in this case is Palestine. But not Palestine alone; all causes. This is a statement for Palestine, and it is a statement for humanity.”

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Lijnders said of Guardiola’s absence on Friday: “The manager is good, as always, full of ambition and passion but it is a personal matter. He will arrive back here in Manchester today.”

All proceeds from Thursday’s event, organised by Act x Palestine, in Barcelona reportedly directed to Palestinian cultural initiatives. On Thursday evening, figures from the Israeli Defence Forces estimated a fatality count of just over 70,000, a similar figure to that claimed by the Gaza health ministry run by Hamas.

This comes after Guardiola urged supporters to attend a charity football match between teams from Palestine and Catalonia back in November, when he added: “The world has abandoned Palestine. We have done absolutely nothing. They are not to blame for having been born there. We have all allowed an entire people to be destroyed. The damage is done and it is irreparable.

“I can’t imagine a single person in this world who could defend the massacres in Gaza. Our children could be there and be killed simply for being born. I have very little faith in world leaders. They’ll do anything to stay in power.”

Guardiola has previously been unafraid air his political views, not only on Palestine, but also on the independence question in his native Catalonia. He spoke at a pro-independence rally in 2017 and was fined £20,000 by the FA the following year for wearing a “political message”, a yellow ribbon in support of imprisoned Catalan politicians.