Sunday (March 13, 2022) showed how politically charged the scheduling of a football game can be in the English premier league. the FC Chelseaassociated with the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, met Newcastle Unitedie Saudi Arabia. Strictly speaking it is a Saudi fund that bought the north east England club but such differentiations are negligible.
It’s the same with Manchester City. Behind the club, who are on their way to becoming English champions again and this time really them Champions League wants to win, stuck the United Arab Emirates. Just like Qatar behind Paris Saint Germain stuck, which is again French champion and again not the Champions League will win.
Damage to Al-Khelaifi? Rather not
This got Nasser Al-Khelaifi into trouble with the fans. After the end at Real Madrid, they demanded the end of the boss. According to media reports, the governor of Qatar at the French capital club also has trouble with the judiciary. The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland is said to have requested 28 months in prison, among other things because of corruption.
The Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona cannot confirm this, as it only speaks of the accused anonymously. However, the hearing to which the relevant media refer was public and the real names are mentioned in the hearing. Will the demand for more than two years in prison harm Al-Khelaifi, who has already become a top official in the European football association UEFA? Rather not.
Visit to Saudi Arabia
The reports that Saudi Arabia recently carried out 81 death sentences in one day scared few, least of all Gianni Infantino. Just in the week when the 81 people had to lose their lives, the president of the world association FIFA visited the state, which had a critical journalist dismembered in 2018.
The sports minister from the royal family thanked him via Twitter for the visit. A country that has been visited several times by the most powerful football official in the world, in which the Spaniards are playing the Supercup with their noble clubs from Madrid and Barcelona, which the boss of the German Football League is talking about as a venue for the Supercup – that can’t be done at all be as bad as is always claimed, especially in the West.
That is the principle of sports washingi.e. the attempt to prevent this by hosting sporting events and/or operating sports clubs abroad image to brush up.
Even expensive bills add up
The calculation seems to work, even if it gets really expensive like at the Olympic Games. China has the images, the attention and the anthem of the German I.O.C-President Thomas Bach, who had hoped for it and was allowed to expect it. The Uyghurs? Were also topic, but only marginally.
Also through sports washing Vladimir Putin managed to hide his true face in the semidarkness for decades. Ever since the war of aggression against Ukraine began, even old friends have had no choice but to exclude Russia.
The invasion with all its consequences overshadows other topics, even the corona pandemic. Qatar could become a beneficiary of the war if it can increase revenues from gas sales. The Gulf state is already benefiting from the fact that eight months before the start of the World Cup (November 21 to December 18) the human rights situation there is hardly discussed.
Building bridges through dialogue – the failed strategy
Go there, take a look, build bridges through dialogue, at most ask a few critical questions beforehand – that’s the broad consensus with regard to the major event in the Persian Gulf, including at the German Football Association. This strategy also applied to Russia and China.
Drawing attention to human rights in this highly dangerous political situation is difficult, especially in a country that is significantly smaller than Qatar.
Formula 1 brings attention for a few days
Bahrain, its neighbor in the Persian Gulf, only has the opportunity to do so once a year. The events, with which the kingdom is polishing its reputation, also offers the victims of the regime to raise their voices. Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei is one of them.
He was tortured himself in his homeland, writes the director of the “Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy” (BIRD) in a letter to selected Formula 1 drivers, including four-time German world champion Sebastian Vettel. In this respect he knows what many people have to go through in his home country.
Alwadaei now lives in exile in Lonon. In an interview with the sports show, he said on Monday (03/14/2022) that many parliamentarians in Europe had also received a letter asking for support, just like a letter to Stefano Domenicali, the head of Formula 1, on March 20 opened their season in Bahrain.
Letter of request to Boss Domenicali and driver
Domenicali signed a new treaty with Bahrain, valid until 2036, without first speaking to human rights organizations. This contradicts promises made last year, the topic “Violence, violations of human rights and repression” in Bahrain “very seriously” gain weight.
Since the letter to Domenicali remained unanswered by March 14, Alwadaei – as announced to the Formula 1 boss – made it public.