Manchester City's captain Ilkay Gundogan lifts the English Premier League trophy. Meanwhile, the club faces 115 charges from the league related to financial doping. Photo / AP
Manchester City's captain Ilkay Gundogan lifts the English Premier League trophy. Meanwhile, the club faces 115 charges from the league related to financial doping. Photo / AP
OPINION
1. A numbers game for City
A few numbers were highlighted as Manchester City wrapped up another English Premier League crown this weekend.
In becoming the fifth team to win three top-flight English titles in a row, City remain on track to clinch a historic treble of trophies, withFA Cup and Champions League finals to follow.
After their victory over Chelsea, City celebrated while still facing 115 charges related to financial doping, a scandal likely to be years from being settled.
There was grim amusement accompanying Premier League chief Richard Masters presenting the trophy to City, given his organisation had essentially accused the club of cheating.
But the team’s spectacular players wouldn’t have cared, nor did their genius manager Pep Guardiola. As for the club’s Abu Dhabi owners, Masters’ presence must have tickled them.
The City Football Group project – consisting of a dozen clubs around the world including Melbourne City, soon playing for their second A-League men’s title – is booming. Their flagship team are being rightly hailed among the all-time greats. Their overwhelming investment has been an unquestionable success.
As for the charges? Let the courts decide ... eventually. As The Athletic revealed, City’s owners have said they “would rather spend £30 million on the 50 best lawyers in the world to sue them for the next 10 years” than be penalised by football’s governing bodies.
Despite Abu Dhabi’s success, one of their neighbours arguably enjoyed a better sporting weekend. While City have won plenty in the past decade, Brooks Koepka’s PGA Championship triumph was a breakthrough moment for the LIV Golf League.
Koepka claimed his fifth major but the first while having his cheques signed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, overseen by the crown prince himself. It’s unclear whether Mohammed bin Salman, widely known as MBS, is much of a golfer – too much sand, probably – but he must be a fan of LIV being increasingly normalised.
“It validates everything we’ve said,” Bryson DeChambeau said of Koepka’s victory. “I really hope people can see the light now, that we’re trying to provide the game of golf with something new and fresh.”
Putting a fresh face on Saudi Arabia has long been an obsession for MBS – right up there with executing dissidents. And with the PIF, he has champions like Koepka and useful idiots like DeChambeau cleaning up nicely.
After all, who cares about human rights abuses when the narrative of PGA v LIV is just so juicy.
Brooks Koepka celebrates after winning the PGA Championship. Photo / AP
3. Singing the same Toon
The day after Koepka so richly rewarded the Saudis’ financial outlay – reportedly US$100m ( NZ$160m) in signing fee alone – another jewel in the PIF crown paid off.
With a draw against Leicester City yesterday, Newcastle United secured qualification for next season’s Champions League, completing a rapid ascent for a side who last season were flirting with relegation.
“The final whistle was met with huge roars from the St James’ Park faithful who could hardly believe the speed at which their club has been transformed,” read Reuters’ report, “since it was bought by a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in October 2021.”
Huge amounts of money = success. Truly, unbelievable stuff. In fairness, as with Guardiola and City, manager Eddie Howe has done an amazing job, earning credit along with the players.
But also true: Newcastle would not be back among Europe’s elite without the good fortune of being identified by the PIF as a takeover target.
Which club will next win that tainted lottery? Stay tuned.
4. A league of their own
After relatively successfully tackling the global game, Qatar has switched focus to ... the greatest game? Sure. Why not.
The tiny Arab nation that last year hosted the football World Cup is now in the running to snap up those duties for the 2025 Rugby League World Cup.
After France last week pulled out as hosts, and after a Pacific-based tournament was perhaps more sensibly mooted, Qatar expressed its interest despite, y’know, not playing rugby league.
That needn’t stand in their way – anyone who watched Qatar at last year’s World Cup might have guessed they didn’t play football, either.
But they do have shiny new stadiums and infrastructure and, since myriad off-field issues did little to detract from the football, why not keep rewarding their audacity?
5. A free ride when you’ve already paid
On those shiny stadiums and off-field issues, there is one reason to oppose Qatar welcoming the Kiwis: that pesky lingering question of the country’s treatment of migrant workers.
The labourers who built the World Cup venues – and you may want to ready the fainting couch – have since been left jobless and stranded.
They, of course, were the lucky ones who lived to see the tournament, but now the football’s been and gone, many can barely afford to eat.
Rather than sending home money to their impoverished families, one told the Guardian the reverse has become true: “Ironic, isn’t it? We are in the richest country in the world, but we are begging for money from Africa.”
But forget about protesting over unpaid wages and evictions: the Telegraph last week reported that doing so saw three men who worked at Fifa’s main media centre imprisoned since January.
Remember the previous month’s final, though? Messi duelling with Mbappe? What a game.
