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Opinion
Fresh from the United Arab Emirates finally winning the UEFA Champions League, we could soon face a reality where Qatar takes on Saudi Arabia for the right to be crowned European champions next season.
The Saudi government is set to provide Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe with a transfer fund of up to £150 million to sign a raft of big-name players this summer.
The Saudis are also about to execute seven young men who were all under the age of 18 – one of whom was aged just 12 – when they committed a range of alleged crimes.
Last year, the Saudi state executed 81 prisoners in a single day – including some for holding “deviant beliefs” – while the United Nations alleges that three men currently being held on death row on terrorism charges were actually resisting eviction to make way for the proposed linear smart city, The Line in Neom.
But the Saudi government would prefer it if we didn’t talk about their human rights record, which is why they’ll open the chequebook so that Howe can have a crack at signing James Maddison.
That’s why they bought Newcastle United. That’s why they’ve just taken over golf.
That’s why they attempted to sponsor this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup – despite homosexuality constituting a capital offence in the gulf state and women’s football long being a renowned refuge for the LGBTQI community.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Criticise these regimes for their blatant sportswashing, however, and a certain section of social media users will be quick to label you a racist.
Some of those pointing the finger have no connection to these countries whatsoever, other than simply being a fan of a club now owned by a sovereign wealth fund.
Manchester City might be under investigation for systematically breaching Financial Fair Play rules, but for a certain class of social media critic, that’s all just a racist-fuelled conspiracy to tarnish their Emirati owners.
It could soon be the same across town at Manchester United, who have just granted exclusive negotiating rights for shadowy Qatari sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani to buy the club from the widely disliked Glazer family.
For a vocal section of Manchester United fans on online forums like Twitter and reddit, the opportunity to sign the likes of Jordan Pickford and Declan Rice far outweighs any failure to pay the migrant workers who helped Qatar successfully stage the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
It’s perhaps worth pointing out that the majority of these fans don’t appear to live in Manchester or regularly attend games at Old Trafford.
But that’s modern football. Where clubs once relied on their local community to fill the stands and generate revenue, today they cast a global net for fame and fortune.
It’s had an interesting impact in places like Paris, where Paris Saint-Germain’s ferocious hardcore supporters have spent the last 12 years in a seemingly interminable war with the club’s Qatari owners.
PSG’s notorious ultras have no love for Neymar, booed Lionel Messi off the pitch in his final appearance for the club, and have recently taken to boycotting matches at the city-owned Parc des Princes while the Qatar Sports Investment group attempts to buy the much-larger Stade de France.
But despite surrounding himself with plenty of astute football minds, club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi seems routinely baffled by the depth of fans’ feelings – opting to let homegrown talent like Kingsley Coman, Christopher Nkunku and Xavi Simons depart to star in rival leagues, while high-profile signings like Gianluigi Donnarumma and Sergio Ramos make virtually no impact.
An obsession with celebrity has brought little joy to the French capital, but that’s the world we now live in.
The balance of power is shifting from Western Europe to the Middle East – and on the surface of things, that shouldn’t be cause for complaint.
It’s only when you remember that nation-states like Saudi Arabia wilfully execute children that you realise it really doesn’t matter if Allan Saint-Maximin stays or goes after all.