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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   33259 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 20, 2023

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I think the characterization of those opposed to the sale of the club to Qatari buyers is a drastic simplification. The moral factor is one element of opposition, but I think it is one of many and not necessarily the major factor or even something people believe in beyond being used as a stick to beat their opponents.

Rather, there are several points that are likely to be important:

  1. The fact that the Qatari ownership at PSG and the Abu Dhabi ownership of Manchester City are rampant cheats, and the suspicion that Newcastle's Saudi owners and Man Utd's new owners will soon follow suit, ruining the credibility of the game.

  2. A more general distaste for the fact that football will be reduced to a proxy battle between middle eastern states. This will particularly be the case for local United fans, who are likely to see many of the supporters for the buyout as distant, 'fake' fans who have no real connection to the club.

  3. A distaste for the overall financial health of the game that has seen money become an overwhelming factor in success.

  4. Downplaying the moral element as mere "LGBTQ unfriendliness" is also deeply uncharitable. I can't speak overmuch on the Qatari government, but the ills of Saudi Arabia are very well documented, while there is strong evidence that the Abu Dhabi ownership of City engage in murder, torture, and slavery.

Downplaying the moral element as mere "LGBTQ unfriendliness" is also deeply uncharitable. I can't speak overmuch on the Qatari government, but the ills of Saudi Arabia are very well documented, while there is strong evidence that the Abu Dhabi ownership of City engage in murder, torture, and slavery.

I find it more than a little unfortunate that everything has to be about how they're mean to a certain group of special people rather than simply saying, "I don't like Islam and the last goddamned thing in the world I want is a bunch of Islamist cunts owning a British football club". Some of the reasons to not be much of a fan of Islam include the whole throwing gays off rooftops and veiling women thing, sure, but they don't stop there, and those aren't necessary to justify a preference for British football clubs to be British-owned.

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