Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola delivered a three-minute address in support of the Palestinian people at a charity performance in Barcelona on Thursday night.
Guardiola spoke at the Act x Palestine event at the Palau Sant Jordi, the day after Manchester City’s 2-0 Champions League victory over Galatasaray.
The event marked the culmination of the Act x Palestine mobilization campaign, which was organized by Palestinian human rights organizations and a network of European companies.
Guardiola, dressed in a black and white keffiyeh, a symbol of Palestinian identity, addressed the audience at the beginning of the show.
“Good evening, salam alaikum, how wonderful,” Guardiola said.
He continued, “Let me say two things. I think of what we think when I see a child in these past two years with these images on social media and on television, recording himself, pleading, ‘Where is my mother?’ among the rubble, and he still doesn’t know it.
“And 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.”
Guardiola berated those in positions of power during his speech.
“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,” he said.
He called on those present to take action.
“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,” Guardiola said.
Guardiola received a standing ovation from the crowd.
His appearance occurred on the same day that the Israeli military reportedly acknowledged, for the first time, that more than 70,000 Palestinians had died throughout the conflict.
Guardiola had already expressed his political views in public.
According to The Mirror, he received a £20,000 fine from the Football Association in 2018 for wearing a yellow ribbon in solidarity with jailed Catalan independence leaders.
Guardiola stated the war in Gaza “hurts my whole body” in an emotional address as he got an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester in June 2025.
