Paul Fennessy

ALREADY, THE deflection tactics have started.

People looking to justify a potential Qatari takeover of Manchester United will habitually employ good old-fashioned whataboutery along with highlighting other issues that are effectively beside the primary point.

They will primarily focus on the present unacceptable situation at the club. The £500 million debts the Glazers are responsible for and are reportedly set to leave behind at Old Trafford.

They will highlight the fact that politicians around the world are invariably happy to do business with states who have atrocious human rights records.

They will claim sport and politics should be kept separate, and that they are only interested in the ‘football side’ of Manchester United.

They will suggest they do not know enough about the situation in Qatar to make a definitive judgment on it.

They will underline the similar problematic nature of aspects of British and American society.

They will say fans should not be expected to suffer or be held responsible in any way for who runs their club, and add that they have no influence over how the ownership situation pans out.

The same people who shrugged their shoulders and in some cases, even unequivocally praised Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup, will likely be apathetic at best about the current developing situation in English football.

Yet the words of fans or pundits only interested in the welfare of their football club at any outside cost do not deserve to be taken seriously.

On the other hand, it is important to take heed and promote the message of people with genuine in-depth knowledge of Qatar and its obvious flaws.

“Coming in the wake of the World Cup and strenuous efforts from the Qatari government to fashion a glitzy new image for the country, it seems highly likely that any Qatari bid for Manchester United would be a continuation of this state-backed sportswashing project,” Peter Frankental, Amnesty UK’s economic affairs director, recently told the PA news agency.

“We saw only limited reforms on migrant workers’ rights in Qatar in the lead-up to the World Cup, and there’s been no movement whatsoever in ending the disgraceful criminalisation of LGBTQ+ people or institutional discrimination against women.

“It’s been nearly 18 months since the hugely controversial Saudi takeover of Newcastle United and a Qatari bid for Manchester United would be yet another wake-up call to the Premier League over the need to reform its ownership rules.

“We’re not necessarily opposed to the involvement of state-linked overseas financial consortia in English football, but the Premier League must urgently strengthen ownership rules to ensure they’re human rights-compliant and not an opportunity for more sportswashing.”

Really, the above statement gets to the nub of the issue and no amount of spin from people whose main care is to see Man United sign Kylian Mbappe can detract from its facts.

Gary Neville, among others, has argued that engaging with these states that have poor human rights records can encourage reform within their societies.

However, as the above Amnesty quotes allude to, there is almost no evidence of progress since the World Cup in Qatar.

Still, there appears to be little indication that the families of migrant workers will be properly compensated,  after thousands reportedly died,  in the build-up to the 2022 World Cup.

Similarly, since the Newcastle takeover in October 2021, there were infamously 81 executions in one day amid other egregious human rights violations.

There are two ways ethical football fans and people within the game can respond to these disconcerting developments.

They can either vaguely mutter about how depressing the whole situation is and do nothing, or they can protest.

Too many people assume the latter action would be pointless and ineffectual, however, there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Sometimes, if enough fans take a stand, it can directly impact the thinking of a club’s hierarchy.

Were it not for the outrage of thousands of fans in England especially, the European Super League would likely already be a reality.

During the pandemic, both Liverpool and Tottenham were forced to perform a u-turn following widespread anger among supporters at the clubs having opted to place non-playing staff on furlough.

The overriding point is that if enough people care about an ethical issue in football, they evidently do have the potential to create meaningful change.

It seems unrealistic to expect that enough fans will object to the proposed United takeover to prevent it from happening — after all, similar situations of sportswashing were allowed to develop at Man City, Newcastle, and PSG.

However, it is also unfair to portray all supporters of the game as success-obsessed and inherently uncaring.

On Saturday, ahead of the match with Liverpool, according to the i Newspaper, a group of Newcastle fans were attempting hand-deliver a letter to Magpies manager Eddie Howe from the brother of a man who faces torture and the threat of execution in Saudi Arabia.

In addition, a letter in The Guardian earlier this week urged fans to fight against a Man United Qatari takeover.

Thus far, sportswashing in Premier League football has been relatively successful, but there are enough people making noise on the margins to ensure it is not being wholeheartedly embraced, to the extent that spokespeople for these regimes like Howe are at times being questioned.

At the moment, these active dissenters appear to be in the minority, which is why it is crucial for all conscientious football fans to take heed and support their calls while ignoring the club propaganda, willful ignorance, and whataboutery shamefully spouted by many of those within football on a routine basis.

Enough fan support on these issues undoubtedly can effect change and limit the influence of those looking to use football as a sportswashing tool.