Qatar state lands an OFFICIAL bid for the takeover of Manchester United
The Qatar investors for Manchester United have now officially placed their bid for the club.
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It is official now. The Qatar state has landed a bid to take over Premier League club Manchester United. The former Prime Minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani has now confirmed that his Nine Two Foundation is willing to submit an official bid for the club, passing it over from the Glazer family.
Currently, the chairman of one of the Qatari Banks QIB, Al Thani, has said that this bid will carry no debt and all the profit from it will be reinvested into the community and revitalizing the former glories of the club. According to reports, the prince is willing to pay $4.5 billion to acquire 100% of the club.
The Raine Group is organizing the sale of the club on behalf of the Glazer family, and this bid was landed when initial bids were asked to be made by 10 PM GMT. In a statement, Al Thani says, “The bid plans to return the club to its former glories both on and off the pitch, and – above all – will seek to place the fans at the heart of Manchester United Football Club once more.“
Related: UEFA appeals to block Manchester United’s sale to Qatari investors: Reports
Is the Qatar bid for Manchester United a potential attempt into sports washing?
The Qatar state has been under the radar for potential cases of sports washing ever since it landed the bid for hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup. While the World Cup was a grand success, the agonies and alleged human rights violations that came into the foray of the international community can very well not be ignored.
Qatar government also owns the Ligue 1 club Paris Saint Germain, which has been reckoned as one of the most significant financial forces operating within the ambit of the UEFA. PSG is known for getting extensive funding from its West Asian owners, which has translated into its recent player transfers and successes in the French league.
The bid for Manchester United will be no less than another attempt by the Qatar state to use sports to tidy its international image. Non-profit human rights research and advocacy group Fair Square has come up with an extensive letter to the UEFA to look upon this potential bid as a violation of Article 7bis 5 of UEFA’s Statutes.
The statute states a vital clause that mentions, “Member Associations shall ensure that neither a natural nor a legal person (including holding companies and subsidiaries) exercises control or influence over more than one of their clubs whenever the integrity of any match or competition organized at Member Association level could be jeopardized.”
Now, the Qatar state would argue that its consortiums seeking to bid for the club are independent of state control. This, however, might come off as a contradiction as no company or corporation based out of that state can claim no outright influence of the state government’s interest on the same.
Qatar ranks extremely low in the Freedom House’s World Freedom Index, classifying it as a ‘not free’ nation. Now, such attempts to capitalize on sports investments by Qatar would be an easy case of the state trying to whitewash its image amongst powerful blocs such as the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Sheikh Jassim Al-Thani’s bid for Manchester United claims to look for investments in football teams, training centers, and football infrastructure in Qatar and their invested entities. Qatar, after all, showed its prowess as a capable organizer of the sport through the grand success of the FIFA World Cup 2022. The question here is whether Qatar is bothered about the actual success of Manchester United or is looking to use the club as a profit-making entity for geopolitical and economic reasons.
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Siddid Dey Purkayastha
(528 Articles Published)