Spanish Football Chief Accuses UAE and Qatar of 'Irreparably Harming Football Industry'
The La Liga President Javier Tobas accused both the UAE and Qatar of 'irreparably harming the football industry' as he called on the sport's European governing body UEFA to investigate the spending activities of both Abu Dhabi funded Manchester City and Qatari owned Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), and to ascertain whether the clubs are in breach of UEFA spending guidelines.
Both clubs have received substantial amounts of investment since their respective Gulf takeovers. Since taking over Manchester City in 2008 the UAE's deputy prime minister, Sheikh Mansour bin Al-Nahyan has spent a dizzying £1bn on the club, enabling it to compete at the highest level of European football. Similarly, via their sports investment fund, the Qataris have invested huge sums of money in PSG.
Probably the boldest statement of the Gulf presence in European Football came this summer, when PSG shattered the world record transfer fee by signing Brazilian forward Neymar from Barcelona FC for £198m. The French champions quickly added to this by signing Klian Mbappe on loan from Monaco, in a deal likely to amount to a transfer next year in the region of £164m. Man City have also been one of the biggest spenders this window, spending around £214m on new signings.
In a letter sent to UEFA on 22 August, Javiar Tobas argued that the 'laissez fair' spending by oil-rich sovereign Gulf states severely "distorts European competition" by causing inflationary effects throughout the market, which risks "irreparably harming the football industry".
Since being taken over by Gulf monarchies, the spending of both clubs has come under close scrutiny by UEFA . In 2014, the European governing body imposed limits on their spending and withdrew their £18m Champions league prize money for breaching financial fair play rules.
An expert in human rights in the Gulf, and former researcher at Human Rights Watch, Nicolas McGeehan, pointed out that Gulf involvement in football is not isolated to these two clubs but rather should be seen in its wider context.
He stated that “Real Madrid’s new stadium is being funded by Abu Dhabi and millions of Qatari petrodollars have passed through Barcelona‘s coffers in recent years due to their recently terminated shirt-sponsorship deal. European football as a whole is increasingly hooked on Gulf money and there should be a very serious discussion about the ramifications of this dependence”
The UAE's involvement in British football also goes deeper than that of just Manchester City. Emirates Airlines, a UAE state owned company, currently pays £30m a year to the FA for the right to sponsor the FA Cup. For a similar annual fee, it will continue to be Arsenal's main shirt sponsor until 2019, and has naming rights over its home ground until 2028.
These deals come in spite of a commitment made by FIFA this year which states that all footballing activities should be embedded within a respect for human rights. Campaigners have long argued that these kind of sponsorship deals are an effective way for the Emirati authorities to launder its image in the West and divert attention away from their appalling human rights record.
McGeehan said “the fact that Qatar and UAE are both serial and serious human rights abusers doesn't seem to be part of the current debate” among the higher echelons of European football governing bodies.
Since Abu Dhabi's take over of Manchester City in 2008, there have been numerous local campaigns by human rights groups questioning the ethics of the club and the city more broadly associating with a country whose government routinely violate the rights of those residing within its borders.
In recent years, the repressive arm of the Emirati security state has become increasingly coercive with rights groups such as Amnesty International reporting numerous cases of enforced disappearances, torture, and arbitrary detention in the country. It is imperative that the UAE authorities should not be able to use football as a means to conceal their continual violations of human rights law.
