Politics is Still in Sports
We all like to think that politics and sports are separate, like church and state is now. We repulse many attempts that professional sports leagues try to mix the two together because for many, sports is an escape from the burdens of everyday life. In the United States, where the political climate has become extremely polarizing in recent years, politics is rarely infused into sports cultures, with the biggest exceptions in the form of gestures or fashion.
In Europe, especially in major football leagues, the combination of politics and sport is very often, though hidden in plain sight. Federal governments are behind this, some countries using somewhat of a satellite corporation far from their actual headquarters.
In almost every sport, sponsors are to teams as investors are to businesses. It’s seen worldwide, plastered across the jerseys of those who play the game. In the NBA, each team has a unique sponsor, their logo tucked into the corner of the team apparel. In football leagues such as La Liga ( Spain ), the Premier League ( England ), Ligue 1 ( France ), and Bundesliga ( Germany ), the biggest clubs often have popular companies/brands across the shirt.
When discussing politics in sports, the Middle East, specifically the countries of UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar come into play.
Some of the biggest sponsors are from the region, namely Qatar Airways and Emirates. These airways have partnerships with some of European club football’s giants, including AC Milan, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich with some former partners being Paris Saint-Germain and FC Barcelona. Beyond the biggest names, there are numerous smaller clubs across Europe, South America, and Asia where their logo is present. Even one of the biggest domestic competitions in Europe, the Emirates FA Cup ( England ) has their trademark carved into the trophy. Of course, if these corporations are purely business, then there is no politics involved.
However, Emirates is owned by the UAE government while Qatar Airways is owned by the Qatari government. Qatar and UAE have had diplomatic conflict often, with a heated rivalry still present. The sponsorships thousands of miles away can be attributed partly due to the disagreements between the two, both of their proxies vying for greater influence than the other. There are and can be so many reasons why Middle Eastern politics goes past the borders of Europe and inside the countries that make up the European Union. There are also many questions. Why are countries that have no prosperity in the sport of football, nor a population big enough to sustain an industry of the sort become involved in football, especially with its biggest and best teams?
The 2022 Football World Cup will be held in Qatar, a country, as previously stated, has no correlation with football besides their state-owned business, Qatar Airways’ sponsorships. Their bid has been subjected to the speculation of corruption, which is appropriate given the circumstances of the bid. Of course, there is no one reason why Qatar won the bid over other countries, such as the United States, South Korea, Australia, and Japan, all of which have a history of making the World Cup, an achievement that Qatar does not boast.
However, Qatar Airways’ sponsorships with teams filled with World Cup stars and international football executives ( many heads of domestic clubs also sit on the board of national clubs and continental/global administrative bodies, i.e UEFA, FIFA, CONMEBOL ) could’ve been used as a brokering chip in the bidding process, showing how much politics comes into play in global football.
The Middle East is not only involved in sponsorships, but also ownership. Manchester City, one of the best teams in Europe, is owned by the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mansour, who is also a member of their royal family. Numerous other clubs, especially those in England, are owned by other members of Middle Eastern politics and royalty. The web of ownership expands outward like sponsorships did to the best teams in the less competitive leagues of North America ( MLS ), Australia, and India. The ownership gives people that live in tiny countries thousands of miles away a say in governing teams, broadcasting their power internationally for the world to see. These clubs have sometimes been admonished for the actions of their owners. The Abu Dhabi group, which owns Manchester City F.C, was embroiled in controversy in 2012, for human rights violations.
Geopolitics comes into play as well. The countries that control these teams and sponsor many more are the kings of the petroleum industry, with a large chunk of world trade passing through their ports and their waters, giving them billions in profit. However, many are disadvantaged by only waterway to the “outside” world, The Middle East is a turbulent region, one of the most eventful ones in the world. Conflicts there are persistent, never-ending, and always likely. Though their geography doesn’t help them, their network of power stretching into more developed regions and epicenters of global economics, power, and politics gives them somewhat of a “rainy day fund” in the event of another regional collapse.
The Middle East is not the only major player.
Russia, which is even more inconspicuous, has a lesser, but growing influence in European football through politics. The central government owns Gazprom, a gas company. In Europe, many countries are dependent on Russian gas to power their cities, and effectively, their countries. Though Russia holds power in that category, they use sponsorships through Gazprom to cement their economic hold in the European oil industry. A great example is the German club FC Schalke, which is where Gazprom’s main focus is.
The countries of Russia and Germany are partners in oil and gas, with Germany being one of Russia’s main customers. Though Gazprom sponsors teams of much less prestige than its counterparts in the Middle East, it has a partnership with the UEFA Champions League, an international club competition whose final garners three times more viewers than the Super Bowl, around 200–300 million people. It’s frequently shown in the EA Sports FIFA video game franchise, which shows how much Russia is involved in football at a level that is worldwide in popularity.
For Russia, sport is just a tool to advance their agenda. Wherever Russia wants to build a pipeline, which would connect them to Western Europe, they often use Gazprom. In the event of Nord Stream 1,a pipeline which connected Russia and Germany through the Baltic Sea, Gazprom sponsored German soccer teams, namely Schalke F.C. In the event of Nord Stream 2, an even more ambitious project, they sponsored teams in Ukraine, which helped them negotiate to build a portion through the country, though there were other costs involved.
As much as many don’t want politics in sports, politics envelops the whole world, which sports is a part of. Politics will always be present, whether we know it or not.
