Arab princes queue to buy European football clubs.
Covering the face of dictatorship with a football mask.
The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia has recently officially become the owner of a football club in England, despite allegations of human rights abuses.
It has long been rumored that Saudi Crown Prince Ben Salman is looking to buy a club in the English Premier League, and in recent days it has become clear that the Saudis are looking to buy Newcastle United and now This has officially happened.
The purchase of this football club by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, while a year ago, this issue was on the verge of complete cancellation. It was announced at the time that the English Premier League’s complaint against the Benselmann-owned television network could halt the Saudi Crown Prince’s project to buy Newcastle.
Mohammed bin Salman and Saudi Arabia own the beoutQ television network. The network caused a great deal of controversy, as it broadcast the games without buying the television rights to the competitions of the various European leagues.
The World Trade Organization, which oversees matters such as copyright, issued a new 130-page directive at the time, according to which owners of networks that did not respect the right to broadcast television could not be active in football, so it was expected. After the publication of the new constitution, the English Premier League will sue beoutQ and Saudi Arabia, and this situation will make the possible purchase of Newcastle by Mohammed bin Salman in a haze of ambiguity. Recently, even La Liga president Javier Tebas asked the Premier League to consider the problems caused by the beoutQ network in selling Newcastle to Mohammed bin Salman.
However, it is possible that the issue of publishers’ rights has been resolved by the Saudi media. It is said that the necessary guarantees have now been given to the English Premier League that the Saudi government will not be directly involved in the management of the club, and sources say that this has been a green light to advance the negotiations.
The pattern of washing the faces of human rights violators through sports
The purchase of big sports clubs seems to have become a ploy to oust Arab leaders who violate human rights these days, and some people close to the leaders of Arab countries have taken ownership of some sports clubs in the past few years. In recent years, many companies and individuals from Arab countries have bought European clubs and in 12 cases have succeeded. They currently play in four major European leagues, namely Spain, France, England and Belgium, and have even had success in Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City.
In Spain, four clubs are owned by Almeria, Girona, Malaga and Deportivo Leonza. Turki Al-Sheikh owns Almeria, the Emirati-owned City Football Group is based in Girona, Abdullah Al Thani of Qatar is in Mگlaga, and Camp Qatar Spire owns Deportivo Leonesa.
In France, only one team has such a situation in terms of ownership. The capital’s largest team, Paris Saint-Germain, is owned by the Qatar Investment Authority, which is known to Nass al-Khalifa as the club’s owner. In recent years, PSG has established itself as one of the contenders for European football with this Qatari businessman.
Manchester City, Sheffield United and Bristol Rovers are clubs owned by Arab individuals and companies. Sheffield is owned by Saudi Prince Abdullah bin Masaed, who also owns a Belgian team. He wanted to establish a club called Al-Hilal in Dubai. Manchester City is the UAE’s City Football Group, which has Mansour bin Zayed as its main figure and owner. Also a few years ago, the Jordanian company “Dwane Sports” hired Bristol Rovers to be a representative of this country in the list of Arab owners of European clubs.
This active presence of the princes and political leaders of the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, who are also mainly accused of human rights violations, will give them an opportunity to show a new face in the media. In fact, according to the leaders of the Arab countries that violate human rights, the purchase of football clubs is an opportunity to gain the support of celebrities and propaganda figures of the Western media, although ultimately the crime of human rights violations and repression of dissidents will continue to plague Arab princes in the Persian Gulf.
