Neymar’s transfer: Qatar’s politicized deal

CAIRO - 4 August 2017 : Paris Saint Germain’s president, Qatari businessman Nasser Al-Khelaifi, signed one of the best players in the world, Neymar Jr., from Barcelona for €222 million ($260.9 million), making Neymar’s transfer the highest in history. The deal has been seen as a “politicized step” by Qatar to rescue itself from losing the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The deal was also seen as Doha trying to defy the four Arab countries that severed their ties with the tiny emirate over “supporting terrorist groups” such as the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda-affiliate Al-Nusra Front, particularly after calls were voiced to investigate Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup.

Throughout its history, Paris Saint Germain has never paid this amount of money for one player before, nor has any other club.

Neymar is a great player, but €222 million could buy another team. However, Qatar was ready to pay even €1 billion to sign the player, because this transfer is more than football for Qatar.

“It sounds like a lot of money, but given that the stakes are hundreds of billions of dollars because of the World Cup, Neymar will be seen as a sound investment by Qatar,” Christopher Davidson, who teaches Middle East politics at Durham University in northeast England, told Washington Post on Friday.

“This transfer showed the ugly Qatari face. They took Neymar without negotiations with his club; it was an immoral process,” Essam Shaltout, a sports pundit, told Egypt Today on Friday.

He added that Neymar’s transfer has been done with “political arms.”
Qatar needed to headline the news again with something satisfying its people, showing its strength; so they not only signed the biggest promising talent, Neymar Jr., they also challenged his former club, Barcelona, as they didn’t negotiate with them, but rather paid his buy-out clause.

In mid-July, FIFA President Gianni Infantino revealed that Egypt and many Arab nations had requested the replacement of Qatar as 2022 FIFA World Cup host.

“We had many requests from Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Mauritania and Yemen to replace Qatar as 2022 FIFA World Cup host. They will send a letter to the member countries to hold an opinion poll to make a decision,” Infantino told The Local.

The transfer came after Human Rights Watch reiterated in a new report last month its condemnation of the blatant violations of the rights of the migrants working at the sites of the 2022 World Cup, which is scheduled to be held in Qatar.

In December 2010, the small emirate of Qatar won a bid to host the 2022 World Cup. In its World 2017 report, Human Rights Watch argued that the foreign laborers, primarily coming from Asia and Africa, face non-payment and delay-in-payment of wages, along with other violations by their employers, including passport confiscations.

“Neymar’s transfer will affect football badly; it will transform the game to trade. €222 million is crazy!” Kamal Mahmoud, sports pundit, told Egypt Today on Friday, saying, “Paris Saint Germain signed Neymar to defend Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup against big nations’ requests for investigating the 2022 World Cup hosting choice. He will be their World Cup face.”

Qatari investment in sports

Qatar has big investments in the sports industry. They launched the Al Jazeera Sports group, which recently became the beIN media group that controls the broadcasting of the most important sports competitions.

Qatar owns French club Paris Saint Germain through Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who also owns the beIN media group. Paris Saint Germain was an average club in France, but since Qatari ownership, they started paying a lot of money for great players to join their club, like Zlatan Ibrahimovic for $20 million and a $14-million salary annually. It also paid $58 million to sign Angel Di Maria and $63 million for Edinson Cavani. They also paid a lot of money for young players, which made the transfer market crazy.

Amid the current Gulf rift, the beIN Sports broadcast has been blocked in the UAE for nearly a month.

On July 13, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced on its website that Al Ahly head coach Hossam el-Badry will be fined $10,000 and suspended for violating directives and guidelines related to media operations. The coach, as well as the players, refused to hold an interview with BeIN Sports after the match.