Research Papers

One of the most notorious consequences of the recent liberalisation and commercialisation of European football is the growing levels of Arab capital investment in the European football market. Several professional football clubs have been taken over by Arab investors in England, France and Spain. Moreover, UEFA recently awarded the Qatar based television channel Al-Jazeera the rights to broadcast Champions League matches in France, whilst there are strong suggestions that Al-Jazeera will also bid to broadcast Premier League games in the UK domestic market. With these considerations, this paper is a first stage to investigate the impact of and the perception about Arab investment in the European football market. Set against a background of mistrust towards foreign citizens in the continent, the paper aims to ascertain the perception of recent Arab economic investment in some clubs of the top European football markets. The paper will analyse the case studies of three clubs recently taken over by Arab investors: Manchester City in England, Paris Saint-Germain in France, and Malaga in Spain. The paper sets to elucidate, whether Arab investment is perceived as a threat, an opportunity or both. To do so, the case studies address three different dimensions: Economic, governance/regulatory and societal/identity. The paper will employ a qualitative methodology, tracing back the origins and the reactions of the three case studies through content analysis of the press, review of academic contributions and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in the three football clubs.