Prestwich_Blue
Well-Known Member
Just seen this post. Fantastic.I find some responses on here disappointing. It can be summed up 'as the world is a bad place, we have bad people running our club but so does everyone else. So what!'
I have worked at a senior level, directly for a Royal Family in the middle east and taken the Royal Penny and had an excellent living in that time. I hope SWP can back me up on some of this. Many of the Royals have had an expensive private education in Britain or America, there are strong liberlising elements within them as a result. They, however have to introduce change in an incremental fashion and their ability to do so fluctuates with the national and international climate (Trump is playing into the hands of those that want to resist change and even radicalise). The religious factions are fighting for control and carry a lot of weight. It all adds upto a careful balancing act. The fact that City is a leading light in community projects, womens football and embraces LGBT camaigns is no coincidence. It raise uncomfortable questions in the Arab states, ones which our owners seem happy to have raised in their club. I do care about equalities and would not want to live or visit most middle east countries if i were gay or trans. Football, however is equally backward in these aspects. No opennly gay footballers. What does that say about the culture in ALL football clubs. The treatment of political disadents is equally an issue. Hope no one has been on holiday in Spain recently, or Turkey or Amerca etc... That is a real issue we cannot avoid about our owners but as others have pointed out we live in a global economy and all consume gas, oil, petrol from similar places. So, when asked if we have dirty money, ask the others if they believe sport is a power for good, change and breaking down barriers? I believe it can be.
One of the points I made in a KOTK piece I did was that it took us from Magna Carta in 1215, via the 1689 Bill of Rights, to the 1928 Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act to establish the supremacy of an elected body and for everyone to get the vote. That's over 700 years yet people expect places like the UAE to change overnight.
Plus, as you say, there are religious and cultural norms in the Middle East that we can't overlook and will take a very long time to change, if they ever do.