Global Interests Have Overtaken Community Interests in Elite Football
Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig all featured prominently in the Champions League quarterfinals. With the former coming up short against Lyon, while the latter two are set to meet each other in one of the semifinals. However, all three have been very strong in their domestic leagues over the past few years. They also all play high tempo attacking football. These teams have been coherently built to provide their elite managers with the talent and depth that is required to play effective, aesthetically pleasing, football. In the case of City and PSG any squad issues have been papered over by expensive signings. But there was likely never going to be success for these clubs without consideration for the aesthetics of their football. It is unlikely we will ever see Jose Mourinho or Diego Simeone at the helm of any of these squads. Those managers, and their beliefs about football, would not serve the public relations needs of nation-states with horrific human rights records and an energy drinks company.
The success alone of City, PSG and RB Leipzig would bring some of the notoriety that Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Red Bull were hoping for. More people would know who they are through football if their teams simply won things. But winning while playing entertaining football with an emphasis on attacking under the hottest names in football management, in Pep Guardiola, Thomas Tuchel and Julian Nagelsmann, clearly completes their financial backers’ ambitions for their investments. Winning in style allows these clubs to endear themselves to their fans, as well as neutrals. In turn this allows them to rake in the positive coverage they crave to turn the tide on their public image, or to increase their market share in the case of Red Bull. Football is being expertly used by these ownership groups to promote their non-football interests. It is much easier to land world gatherings or strike deals with other nations if your nation is thought as the catalyst behind a successful and exhilarating football club, rather than a force that is committing human rights abuses against its own citizens. For Red Bull, if their football clubs are cool and en vogue then so too must their energy drink be. Football is serving an unsettling role as a PR or advertising firm “sportswashing” a nations negative image or increasing a brand’s notoriety. At the elite level football is moving on from community interests and towards nations or brands and their global interests.
Furthermore, in a purely footballing sense, these developments also push the game at the elite European level down a very narrow path. PSG’s opponent in the Champions League quarterfinals were Atalanta, who were the darlings of Europe for their open attacking football carried out by a far more modest squad. However, against PSG they looked tired due to their inability to afford the obscene depth PSG possess and they were forced to play much more defensively. Atalanta simply do not have the access to the capital that is required to play attacking football on a continental level. In other cases these clubs force clubs to spend beyond their means to keep up with them in the hunt for a seat at a table they will only shortly be told they are not truly invited to participate in the discussions at. These clubs restrict and normalize a level of brilliance that is beyond the reasonable limits of the upper echelon performances of other seemingly “elite” football clubs. City have turned breathtaking attacking football into such a norm they are seen by some observers to be boring to watch because it all seems so predictably exacting and brutal. This could be dangerous for football’s elite competitions because the scarcity of the game’s brilliance is largely what sets it apart from other forms of sports and entertainment. It gives it the tension that can hold an audience.
The current landscape of elite European football feels like the Soviet domination of Ice Hockey at the Olympics when it was still an amateur competition. The Red Army played with a combination of speed, puck movement, and control that dominated the competition with breathtaking goals. They could do it with such precision and regularity because their “amateur” athletes were kept together for grueling training year-round as members of a group of the Soviet army essentially dedicated to ice hockey. They were elevated above their competition by resources that were inaccessible for opposing teams. The quality of their achievements and play was also not appreciated by the players themselves because of the intense training they underwent and the relentless need for them to win for their country’s status as a world power. The strength of the Soviet Union’s power came from the perception of their power, and their dazzling play paired with their utter domination on a global stage perfected their “brand” as a world power in this realm. That process is largely being replicated by elite football clubs in relation to “sportswashing” and advertising corporate interests in the clubs mentioned above..
This is not to say that the players and staff at these clubs should be held accountable for the actions of the people who pay their salaries. It is also not the fault of the fans or neutrals who support and enjoy these teams’ performances, because aesthetic beauty can transcend context. But it is important to take a step back afterwards to understand that the specific transcendent quality of beauty is what is being co-opted by Qatar, the UAE and Red Bull to serve their global interests.
