I think its a very Western view to try and reduce sportswashing down to a business plan. Particularly in sports where such businesses frequently operate at a loss and where only playing and managing staff make any kind of wealth.
More to the point, how does spending money to win trophies diversify their economy and make income streams? The businesses themselves are the equivalent of an SME. Liverpool FC, one of the top ten biggest clubs in the world has a revenue of 1/2 a billion a year and employs less than a 1000 people. That is peanuts. In contrast Mercedez employs 170,000 people and has a turnover of 150bn.
How would people in UAE benefit from having control over a European football team? It would mean no new jobs in their country, pathetic profit streams and hegemony only maintained by capital flows the opposite way.
I have heard Gabrielle Marcotti talk about the idea of this being some sort of buysiness plan, but never explaining how sucha plan would work.
I think the problem is people think 'soft power' is about making a regime cheery and likable. But to me it is akin to what the Nazis did in the 1936 Olympics. The cost wasn't an issue. The plan wasn't to make a profit. The real purpose was propaganda, to promote the greeatness of Germany, not to make them appear more likable.
Similarly, the UAE is using sports as a means of profile raising, putting it front and centre for very little cost. The latter point is crucial. UAE GDP is 415 bn dollars annually. It has a population of 9 million. For comparison purposes, Ireland has a population of 5 million, and a GDP of 500bn dollars. The UK has a population of approx 67 million and GDP of 3.3 trn dollars.
In other words, while UAE has control over a very important resource, in pure money terms its not that well off. Hell, it's poorer than ireland, per capita is half that of Ireland (Saudi is a quarter of ROI). They can't invest in tech or manufacturing or any of those areas, they will never scale up to be profitable and will take decades to establish an appropriate base/business culture. They are trying that, nonetheless, planning for when the oil runs out.
In the meantime, what they can do for very little money, is make big waves geopolitically, drawing attention to themselves and presenting an image of power and prestige that far outstrips the actuality of their state. Everyone now has an image of an oil rich, successful nation, powerful, impactful and, most importantly, influential. And what has it cost them? a billion or so on transfers? A couple of million on lawyers? Again, peanuts.
The fact is, sports are way more influential than the money involved with them would suggest. For a mickey mouse amount of money for a state all anyone has spoken about for the last decade is the UAE, it's wealth, power, influence. What no one has spoken about is how it's actually a poor country with a mindlessly wealth but tiny elite. It's in every paper every day, on TV, on radio, podcasts, forums etc. Christ any country would give a bn for that kind of exposure and coverage. They don't care if they are liked, but they do care if they are respected.
It doesn't make any sense as a state led business plan, it's too small scale and unprofitable. But a s a piece of propaganda it is massively cheap and effective.
