Manchester United fans have formed a new campaign group to protest against the Qatari takeover of the club.
Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, chairman of one of Qatar’s biggest banks, lodged a second bid to buy United from the Glazer family last Friday and is hoping to succeed against rivals who include Ineos owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
But there are growing concerns within the fanbase that the club will effectively come under ownership of the Qatari state and be used to launder the country’s human rights abuses if Al Thani takes over.
The newly-formed group, United Against Sportswashing, has collaborated with NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing, a campaign group which has been protesting against the owners of Newcastle United since it was bought by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
i revealed in February that members of NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing were hand-delivering a letter to Eddie Howe from the brother of a man who faces torture and the threat of execution in Saudi Arabia at St James’ Park before they played Liverpool.
A joint statement from the two protest groups said: “While NUFC play MUFC on Sunday, groups of fans from both clubs will be united in a common cause, regardless of the result on the pitch.
“We are Newcastle United and Manchester United fans standing together to call for an end to the sale of our historic clubs to states which use them to sportswash their human rights abuses.”
The Premier League has always maintained it received “legally binding assurances” that the Saudi state would not control Newcastle United, despite the country’s actual Public Investment Fund purchasing the club.
At the start of March, the situation was further mired in controversy when PIF lawyers argued in a US Court, in a case involving Saudi-owned LIV Golf, that the fund should be considered a “foreign state” and that Yasir Al-Rumayyan, chairman of Newcastle, is “a sitting minister of the government”.
Premier League chairman Richard Masters refused to say whether this had prompted further investigation when he was grilled in a parliamentary hearing this week.
“As football fans, we demand full transparency on this issue,” the joint statement continued. “There should be no ‘secret deals’ with repressive regimes, no matter how much money they have promised to invest in the Premier League. It’s time for Richard Masters to come clean and publish what the ‘legal and binding assurances’ given to the Premier League were.”
United Against Sportswashing and NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing also cite the 2008 takeover of Manchester City by Sheikh Mansour. “We now know that the UAE is one of the most oppressive regimes in the world,” they said, adding: “Now we have the threat of a third club, Manchester United, being taken over by Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, close family to the president and chairman of the Qatari Islamic Bank. This follows the exposure of Qatari human rights abuses during the World Cup. We know that Qatar has a law No (25) of 2002 which makes any significant investment subject to direct supervision of the state.”
On Thursday, the Premier League announced that it was toughening its ownership regulations, including “a new Disqualifying Event for human rights abuses, based on Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020”.
However, former sports minister Tracey Crouch, a key figure in the formation of the independent football regulator, described it as “smoke and mirrors”.
The Manchester United and Newcastle anti-sportswashing groups said: “We remain concerned that an individual from a repressive regime can still become an owner if it is not made clear that the approval of a significant investment is dictated by the ruling family in these Gulf states.
“It is impossible to separate Sheikh Mansour from the UAE authorities and the same is true of Skeikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani and the Qatari authorities.
“As football fans, regardless of our club colours we believe dictatorships such as Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Qatar should be disqualified from owning clubs because of their appalling human rights records.
“Further, pumping money disproportionately into a small number of clubs distorts the fairness of the game. We are sure the fans of the other 17 other clubs in the Premier League will agree with us.
“We invite all football fans to join us in opposing sportswashing and state ownership of our football clubs and to support human rights. Football fans united can force the government and Premier League to act.”
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/QRN8TLX
Post a Comment