The Football Gulf

Manchester City were bought fifteen years ago by Sheikh Mansour, a man who is currently the vice president of the UAE. Before that, they were owned by the former Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra. Yes, their results have drastically improved since being bought by Sheikh Mansour, but it's clear that football has always had an interesting political relationship. Lots of criticism is directed towards Sheikh Mansour's investment in City, which has been called sportswashing, to clean the international image of the UAE due to the human rights violations which have been committed there, such as torture and criminalising homosexuality. Indeed, these violations have been reported, but largely forgotten about in relation to City's footballing success.

Shinawatra, obviously, is no saint. He sold City so they could "progress and compete at the highest level", so said Sky at the time, but surely the arrest warrants against him and his frozen assets after allegations of corruption likely played a role at the time. He'd wanted to own Liverpool before owning City, however, whilst he was Prime Minister of Thailand, so it's not like owning City would have been a dream of his. Either way, these two examples of owners could serve as proof that many football team owners aren't really doing it because they want to see their teams succeed. The fact they do is a bonus, of course - the fact that the best players are there helps a lot. However, if you could improve your image, why wouldn't you buy a football club and remove yourself from allegations of human rights abuses and corruption?

Skip forward to today. Newcastle United are owned by the Saudi Arabian PIF - a sovereign wealth fund, with $700bn assets under management. The PIF is part of Vision 2030, an initiative with the hope that Saudi Arabia would become a "global investment powerhouse" by diversifying the Saudi economy - football is just one part of this vision, laid out in this PDF. Newcastle are one of five clubs with investment from the PIF, the others being Al-Nassr, Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli, all of the Saudi Pro League. Those four clubs respectively have made eye-watering investments in transfers in the last few months, with signings such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Neymar and Jordan Henderson all catching the attention of various news outlets. The total money spent was over £700m, with the PIF clubs having a total net spend of £683.5m alone. Al-Ittihad even wanted to sign Liverpool winger Mo Salah for £150m alone. It's clear that these clubs are being favoured, and it's thus clear that a football gulf has emerged in Saudi Arabia.

Henderson's move in particular was unusual because it was to Al-Ettifaq, before rather unknown and unremarkable, but has gained recognition due to Steven Gerrard becoming their manager, and football stars such as Jack Hendry, Fabinho and Demarai Gray joining the club. They are the fifth biggest spenders in the Saudi Pro League, with their £33m outlay greater than clubs more recognisable such as Barcelona - if anything, it's clear that Saudi Arabia is quickly becoming more prominent in football due to greater investment.

His move was also controversial due to his previous support of the LGBT community whilst captain of Liverpool, and whilst Henderson may have apologised for any hurt caused, it's clear that footballers can't just escape criticism regardless of what their actual stances could be. Because such a move would inevitably get into the news over any human rights abuses that are being committed by Saudi Arabia, whether they are related to LGBT discrimination, the ongoing war in Yemen, the exploitation of migrant workers, and more. It's easy to forget that women only got the right to vote in Saudi Arabia a couple of years ago. Either way, news outlets don't often report on human rights violations, and it's easy to forget just how linked Saudi Arabia is with countries such as the US and UK due to oil exports, not least after Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine (which caused many countries to back away from supporting Russian oil). Joe Biden visited Saudi Arabia last year, and no human rights commitments were made. The US and UK continue to back Saudi Arabia in the war in Yemen, a war which seems to have largely been forgotten about by the media. 

Obviously it's clear that Steven Gerrard isn't a large plaster on Saudi Arabia's international reputation. Perhaps if those transfers never took place, we still wouldn't be discussing the human rights violations ongoing there - perhaps, if anything, they've caused us to talk about them more because they've become even more prominent in the minds of many. Yet I'm certain this isn't some sort of reverse psychology trick - the greater awareness of the Saudi Pro League would have caused many to start watching the leagues (and the BBC even reported on it last time I watched Sportsday). If anything, the Saudi politicians have won, and all the players and the Saudi fans and the PIF investors have won. I'm writing a blogpost on this topic, after all, and it's not like the transfers would ever be reversed or would stop. Perhaps the main reason to complain is that football itself appears to become even more fractured as money is poured into the game at greater levels than ever before, whilst concerningly perhaps also used for political purposes.

I started this article by mentioning Thaksin Shinawatra owning Manchester City, which could be seen as an example of sportswashing to improve his reputation. If it was, it didn't work in the end - he was handed an eight year sentence in the end - but his time in charge of City makes it evident that politicians have always been able to possess some kind of control in football clubs. Perhaps it's just more egregious and obvious nowadays; maybe social media has made it easier for people to be critical of these owners, and for people such as Jordan Henderson to not get away with a transfer without being questioned. In my opinion, Henderson would have been a fool if he thought he couldn't get away with that transfer, and the fact that the captain of Liverpool managed to divide a large part of the fanbase cements the idea in my mind that he really did want to move to Al-Ettifaq, or at least didn't care what the backlash would be. Or didn't know how severe the backlash would end up being. I'm happy to be corrected, however.

All this occurs whilst other football clubs have to feel the weight of poor ownership. It's been only six years since Scunthorpe United and Southend United were battling for the League One playoffs. Since then, Scunthorpe have been relegated three times, whilst Southend have been relegated twice and are facing insolvency. The same season when Sheikh Mansour bought Manchester City, Luton Town were relegated to non-league football after facing a thirty-point deduction. In many countries such as Poland and Romania, rampant corruption and poor ownership meant many football clubs went from winning trophies to ending up in amateur leagues, or from beating West Ham to losing 19-0 in the amateur leagues. These clubs would never have the opportunity of signing Cristiano Ronaldo, let alone face off against him, and it's interesting to always remember that whilst the top leagues of football are laced with excess amounts of money, there are many lower league clubs that falter. If anything, there are multiple football gulfs, with arguably the most serious one that of the richest clubs and the financially-stricken. 

I wrote a poem that was published on this blog called Party X, which intended to satirise the idea of a political party buying a club. Arguably that's already happened; it's just not a party, but a politician who has managed to buy a club. And as always, whilst the struggling football clubs that form a key part of local communities are wound-up, there are richer clubs that serve as curtains for owners to hide behind - and who knows if those are even the curtains they wanted?

If you've got to this point in the blogpost, please leave feedback in the comments. This was a particularly lengthy blogpost and I want to know how to improve in the future - point out any inaccuracies, and I'll edit them accordingly!