Define sportswashing.
Define sportswashing.
If the ultimate aim of Citys majority share owners was "Sportswashing" then you'd have to say they failed miserably., as its been counter productive at best. Didn't read much about Abu Dhabi in the UK media positive or negative, prior to the Mansour takeover at City in 2008. Now its an endless stream of negative headlines and under a constant spotlight.
I'd argue that their ultimate aim of the foray into Manchester was mainly financial as oil, a fossil fuel, won't last forever and they needed to future proof their income stream. Possibly with a a small side order of vanity project too. In this respect Abu Dhabi have been VERY successful.
These are very clever and shrewd business people. Which is more likely? Attempt to gain favour with the west, fail miserably but, luckily, hit the jackpot financially? Or have a sound strategy for success and achieve it?
There may be numerous reasons to castigate Citys owners but this isn't one of them. If theres been any underhand deals going on, and thats a big IF, then its the vendors of the land in question that need examining? Look no further than Manchester City Council.
I guess that doesn't generate clicks though.
and strangely enough, the Arabs before that.Did they mention Russia and China ?
Goodness knows who London sold out to.
Is the Athletic something to do with the Guardian as all the journos have retweeted this including the Rag Sam Lee
Very anti-UAE and the most anti-City paper out there.It's the guardian. They have this anti UAE agenda.
Sportswashing isn’t a thing.And yet some people still pretend sportswashing doesn't exist.
The part that's always gotten me is even if you allow for all of this and the plan really was to sportswash, why Manchester City specifically? If the nation state was behind it surely they could afford basically whomever, regardless of whether it was "for sale" or not. Wouldn't you go for a (previously) top club instead, or at least one in London?I have always felt that sportswashing as motivation for buying the club has never stood up to any scrutiny.
A story that used to get retold all the time was that when journalists rang up people in Abu Dhabi to find out about the takeover no one had heard about it. No one had even heard of ADUG and confused it with ADIA.
That doesn't sound like something that was planned and organised for PR purposes at the highest level.
Simlarly, opposing claims that it was bought as an investement by Mansour also don't really hold up. Total investment in CFG must total well over £2Bn by now, so the 2020 valuation of $5Bn doesn't represent incredible growth over 12 years - 6% year on year - for the amount of risk traditionally involved in football.
I personally believe Mansour bought it for fun/because he had an interest in football. Abramovic had made high profile ownership look glamourous and maybe Sulaiman or Stavely or Garry Cook convinced him. Then when Sulaiman started making waves, Khaldoon came in and it became another Mubadala investment.