There are times when the world just stops making sense - how can it be that just throwing enough money around can get you everything you want and in essence provide the legitimacy you crave and how can it be that sport in particular Football (thought Golf, Martial Arts and Formula 1 are also in play) is still providing the fastest route to this,
take Qatar - we all remember these stories
The many, many controversies surrounding the 2022 World Cup, explained
Since FIFA awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar in 2010, the tournament has been ensnared in a tangled web of scandals.
https://archive.is/ytHeP
specifically
Controversy 1: Qatar’s bid was marred by accusations of corruption and bribery
Controversy 2: The tournament’s infrastructure has been built on the backs of low-paid migrant laborers
Controversy 3: Qatar is under fire for using the tournament to “sportswash” its record of human rights abuses
Controversy 4: FIFA is massaging the numbers on its sustainability pledge
yet in recent days I have seen the following
Qatar Elected to Head UN’s International Labor Conference
https://unwatch.org/qatar-elected-to-he ... onference/
how this has come to pass is brilliantly illustrated in this thread
https://twitter.com/HillelNeuer/status/ ... 8211660803
FIFA made false claims about ‘carbon-neutral’ World Cup in Qatar, Swiss regulator says
https://archive.is/7qkZ6
of course we know that in the last four years FIFA president Gianni Infantino effectively moved FIFA to Qatar and benefitted from exclusive use of a Qatar Airways jet and associated support
Then there is the small matter of PSG, whose president Nasser al Khlelaifi holds prime roles in the ECA, UEFA and sports broadcaster beINSport, who has turned a poor man's club into a global marketing machine, that is dominant on the field domestically but poor on the European stage.
there remains the prospect of Manchester United climbing into this particular circus ring
Take Saudi
and all the recent posts on the redefining of football salaries (not forgetting the Golf - they now effectively control much of the world game)
PRO GOLF MERGER SIGNIFIES SPORTS’ SWING TOWARD THE GLOBAL SOUTH
https://archive.is/8nHBv
though some feel that is just a bid to distract from what Abu Dhabi are hoping is the culmination of a 15 year project with ultimate Glory this coming Saturday
https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 9032767488
And so on to the UAE
The issues surrounding Manchester City are legion and know to all at some level - The prospective first Champions League (and a treble to boot) is so close they can smell it - the ultimate glory
the same UAE are getting ready to host the next climate change conference in November COP 28 - and have no qualms about putting the man in charge of one of its State Oil Corporation which was consulted on how to respond to a media enquiry - i.e. it helped shape an interested party response
‘Absolute scandal’: UAE state oil firm able to read Cop28 climate summit emails
Exclusive: UN conference president Sultan Al Jaber is also head of oil firm, which was consulted on how to respond to a media inquiry
https://archive.is/CrGUM
as I have been posting for many years now the world is changing rapidly before our eyes, particularly in the Geo-political economy of sport - some of it necessarily so, the west has made poor use of its power, wealth and influence across its rules based structures.
The recent meeting of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) foreign ministers - a forerunner of a full BRICS conference later in the year saw an open declaration of a move to multi-polarity of global power and economic wealth generation - the nations queuing up to join the BRICS group are many
WORLD NEWSMore than 30 countries want to join the BRICS
https://archive.is/DHixY
Could it be that Gianni Infantino - who while in temporary charge at UEFA negotiated fines rather than sanctions with PSG and Manchester City over FFP rule breaking is much further down the line of understanding this new order than almost anyone else?