Where to start, if not to deflate this balloon that is the so-called ‘independence’ of Sheikh Jassim Ben Hamad, a candidate for the acquisition of Manchester United, vis-à-vis the Qatari power?
About him, we know so little that, at first, some English media had confused him with his father, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim, who until 2013 had been one of the most powerful men in the emirate, when he suddenly withdrew from the scene after the equally sudden accession of Sheikh Tamim to the Qatari throne. ‘HBJ’, as he is usually nicknamed, had held the positions of Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and, as such, had participated in the famous ‘Elysée luncheon’ to which President Nicolas Sarkozy had also invited Michel Platini, less than two weeks before the vote which awarded the organization of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
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Gianni Infantino and the Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani
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His son Jassim – one of his fifteen children – had until then lived in such secrecy that even spokesmen for his bid to buy Manchester United were unable to say his exact age (forty-four, it seems, unless it’s forty), whether he’s married or not and where his wealth would come from. We just know that he was bombarded president of the Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) in 2010, a position certainly significant, but which is certainly not able to have brought him the seven or eight billion that the Glazer family hears pocket for the sale of the club which they acquired for next to nothing
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A ‘foundation’ that raises questions
‘JBH’ only holds 6.78% of the capital of QIB, which generated a profit of one billion in 2022, and paid a dividend of 1.62 riyals per share in January 2023. The prince holding very precisely 160,189 475 of these actions, he thus received a little less than 260 million riyals, or 71.4 million dollars. Even assuming that he has received comparable dividends since 2010, that would have given him an overall income of $856.8 million over that period. Even adding a few tens or even hundreds of millions paid in salary, we are therefore very, very far from the mark, especially since Cheikh Jassim ensures that he can acquire the club without contracting the slightest debt through his ‘foundation’Ninety Two .Ninety-Two
, ninety-two – the year pre-teen JBH reportedly fell ‘in love’ with Manchester United. 1992, the year that saw Eric Cantona crowned champion of England with Leeds United.
You will notice the quotation marks that accompany the word ‘foundation’. It is impossible to find any trace whatsoever of this entity, in Qatar or elsewhere. If it exists at all, it is at best a vehicle used to take control of Manchester United. To, let’s be honest, hide the involvement of the emir and the emirate in the affair, which is in no doubt for anyone. Who is QIB’s largest shareholder, indeed? The Qatar Investment Authority, or QIA, in other words the Qatari sovereign wealth fund, which is to the emirate what the PIF, which owns 80% of Newcastle, is to Saudi Arabia.
Newcastle owner Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Amanda Staveley
Credit: Getty Images
This, it will be remembered, had not prevented the Premier League from giving its blank check to the acquisition of NUFC by the Saudis, who had given the assurance that, but no, the PIF was strictly independent power. We still laugh about it in Riyadh; a little less elsewhere. But having swallowed this snake, it is hard to imagine the PL not swallowing another. The ECA, the association of European clubs, should not cause too many problems either, its president being none other than Nasser al-Khelaïfi, among many other presidents of Qatar Sports Investments, another offshoot of the Qatari state – and owner of PSG.
United, City and Newcastle players in a Gulf War by proxy?
The only question is whether UEFA would adopt the same hands-off policy in the (increasingly likely) case that the ’92 ‘foundation’ were to win the game in Manchester
. The precedent of the two ‘RBs’, Leipzig and Salzburg, suggests that yes, although it is a state, not an energy drink company, which could end up majority owner of two clubs in this case; and two of the flagship clubs of European football, moreover.
We would therefore find ourselves in an English championship which would serve as the battleground for a funny Gulf war by proxy, in which Newcastle would represent Saudi Arabia, Manchester City the United Arab Emirates and Manchester United the Qataris, in other words the three actors in the latent conflict which led to the blockade of Qatar in 2017, and from which we only emerged in appearance, whatever we wanted to read in the smiles of circumstance displayed during the 2022 World Cup.
This would also mean that the Premier League, not content with being the richest championship in the world, would also be the playground of three clubs with almost unlimited financial means, crushing a little more what remains of competition both in England than in Europe. We must also ask ourselves the question of what would happen to the Qatari involvement in PSG, because if we had to favor one club over another, it would obviously be on the side of Manchester United that the balance would tip. We are not there yet. Perhaps Jim Ratcliffe will not relive the failure he experienced when bidding for Chelsea. Perhaps Manchester United supporters, many of whom see the potential arrival of the Qataris with an unbenevolent eye, will regain the energy that inhabited them when they helped to derail the project of Super League. Maybe. But this does not take the road, and will further add to the feeling of helplessness that fans in all countries feel vis-à-vis a sport which no longer belongs to them, and in which the reason of the richest is almost always the best.
The Glazers had indeed borrowed most of the capital necessary for this acquisition by using the club’s future income as collateral, which explains the colossal interest that has burdened it since..
A failure of the Qataris in their business would not mean that they would withdraw from the game: Tottenham remain their plan B
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