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This is how the Arab ducks buy European football. And on human rights, everyone shut up?

3 years ago babelfish

This is how the Arab ducks buy European football. And on human rights, everyone shut up?

After Abu Dhabi's Manchester City and Qatar's PSG, Bin Salman's Saudi Newcastle arrives. Facts and comments

"Money cannot buy love, but it can change the object of desire," wrote Foreign Policy of Saudi Arabia's new passion: football.

The reign of Mohammed Bin Salman celebrates the purchase of Newcastle United, the historic English football club that plays in the Premier League.

"The agreement wanted by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia – the Public Investment Fund or PIF – to take over the English club was blocked last year due to a controversy over the kingdom's tacit support for the pirate sports broadcaster BeOutQ. ”Recalled FP .

But a few days ago, Tuesday 5 October, the issue was resolved and the sale was made official within 24 hours, despite protests from human rights activists, as well as direct appeals from Hatice Cengiz, the girlfriend of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi ( here the account of his murder ).

THE SAUDI GOALS

The Saudi move is part of a broader high-profile investment program in the entertainment sector. As FP reconstructed, in fact, “in the last year, the fund has invested more than 1.3 billion dollars in Disney, in the concert promoter Live Nation, and also in the troubled Carnival Cruiselines”.

"They are using the soft power of football, which has worldwide appeal, to try to change the narrative about Saudi Arabia," Kristian Ulrichsen, a Gulf States policy expert affiliated with the Baker Institute for Public Policy, told the newspaper. Rice University. "People are now talking about the country for something that is not about Yemen, or Khashoggi, or human rights."

THE CHALLENGE WITH QATAR AND ABU DHABI

For FP, the Saudi kingdom is playing a geopolitical game with its rival, Qatar, which through Nasser Al-Khelaïfi has invested in Paris St-Germain to build a global brand and beautify the image of the monarchy.

However, the challenge of the Saudi Arabian asset fund is not only aimed at Qatar, but also towards Abu Dhabi, and more directly to Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whose investment group owns Manchester City, another prestigious English club that has been purchased in 2008.

"In a sport where money buys success, the source of funds seems less of a concern," FP notes, writing that Saudi Arabia is also seeking leverage with the UK government, which is feeling more and more public pressure to sell. of arms to the reign of MBS.

WHO CELEBRATES AND WHO PROTESTS

According to FP , the Newcastle purchase also appears to be a shot in the arm for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was personally pressured by MBS to ensure the deal went through.

In accepting the purchase offer, the Premier League said it was "satisfied", because "the ownership of the sovereign wealth fund does not mean that the Saudi government directly interferes with the functioning of the club".

This is not enough for organizations like Amnesty International, which has called for changes to club ownership rules to include respect for human rights.

The idea that the Saudi fund operates separately from the government does not hold up, Ulrichsen said: "Not only is there no separation between the fund and the state, but if you look at the Saudi state of 2021, the PIF is in my opinion. opinion is the most important part, because it is the vehicle of implementation to which MBS has turned several times to transform its visions into reality ”.

WHAT THE FANS SAY

Newcastle fans, on the other hand, seem less concerned about their owners' geopolitical goals. Some rumors speak of Antonio Conte as a possible new coach.

"The World Cup next year will be in Qatar and that's one of the worst places in the world [for human rights] – so why should Newcastle United be affected by the human rights issue?" Ray Sproul, 80, told the Guardian . “Man City has had its owners for years and no one is yelling and screaming at them. We are only interested in football. We are normal football fans and that's all ”.

After all, European football has already been the object of investments for years by foreign scroungers, not only Arabs but also Russians, Chinese and Americans. Just look at Italy, where Chinese and US investments are already massively present, starting with important teams such as Inter, Milan and Rome.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/cosi-i-paperoni-arabi-si-comprano-il-calcio-europeo-e-sui-diritti-umani-tutti-zitti/ on Fri, 08 Oct 2021 14:13:15 +0000.