The "Gulf derby", "The Oil Derby", the "Golfico", the "Cashico" ... Between PSG and Manchester City, it is more than a semi-final first leg of the Champions League which will be played on Wednesday April 28. If the media and social networks are still hesitating on the best way to nickname this duel at the top, the sports poster opposes two rising powers of European football and, through them, two competing Gulf states, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, engaged in a battle for influence in sport.
"There is a logic in wanting to compare these two clubs. They are two new entrants in the elite of European football. They are two new rich, owned by sovereign funds from the same region of the globe", notes Jean-Baptiste Guégan, author of "Geopolitics of sport. Another explanation of the world" (éd. Bréal), interviewed by France 24.
Next destination: PARIS ✈️🇫🇷
See you on April 28 👀
🆚 @PSG_inside
🏆 1/2 GO - @ChampionsLeague
🏟 Parc des Princes
⏰ 21:00
🔷 #mancity pic.twitter.com/vUpTADhhgn
- Manchester City (@ManCityFra) April 15, 2021
Sheikhs game
On the one hand, PSG, the jewel of Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) since 2011, that Doha and Sheikh Tamim ben Hamad al-Thani polish with hundreds of millions of euros and signatures of big stars, David Beckham (2012-2013 season) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (2012-2016) to Neymar and Mbappé (since 2017).
On the other hand, Manchester City, transformed in 2008 into a winning machine, thanks to the unlimited resources of the Emirati fund Abu Dhabi United Group (Adug), owned by Sheikh Mansour ben Zayed al-Nahyane.
To these similarities, we must add an identical goal: to win a first Champions League to finally enter the history of European football.
So far, the two clubs have won one Cup each: in 1996 for the Parisians, in 1970 for the Mancuniens.
PSG, Qatar's "nation branding" tool
Despite the commonalities, the two states and their sovereign wealth fund have adopted radically different strategies with their football toy.
“Qatar is a country that was traumatized by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in the early 1990s. At that point, the country realized that it could happen to it too, because it had no 'allies and that no one placed it on the world map. Qatar then set out in search of recognition through sport. We are in a logic of' nation branding '", explains Jean-Baptiste Guégan.
"PSG is the club and the brand of a state, Qatar. The profitability of the project is incidental. Qatar wants to acquire a modern image through sport and also to get closer to the Western elites by establishing itself in a European capital ", underlines the expert in geopolitics of football. The choice of the Parisian club is obvious, "the Qatari dynasty being Francophile and Francophone. Add to this the good relations with Nicolas Sarkozy, who was able to make the link between the club and QSI: the PSG was the perfect candidate for a Qatari investment . "
Nasser al-Khelaïfi is chosen to head the club in the capital.
A former tennis player, he patiently weaved his web in the world of sport.
This Qatari minister without portfolio who heads beIN Media, broadcaster of the Champions League, is also a member of the UEFA executive committee.
He also recently replaced Andrea Agnelli (president of Juventus) at the head of the European Association of Clubs (ECA), the powerful organization which weighs on the reforms of European competitions.
At the same time, Qatar continues preparations for "its" World Cup in 2022, despite criticism of alleged human rights abuses at stadium sites.
Manchester City, a global brand
"For Manchester City, we are more in an economic logic. We are striving to create a real multinational sports company. City is at the heart of a holding company, the City Football Group (CFG), which has nine clubs across the country. the world, especially in France now with Troyes [Premier of Ligue 2]. It is the center of a franchise group, "explains Jean-Baptiste Guégan. "The objective for CFG is thus to create synergies between clubs and to benefit from them through the development of players, their promotion, their transfers and the explosion of television rights. It is also to pool sponsors to adapt them to local markets through clubs. "
And if on the side of Manchester, the transfers are less rowdy than in Paris, the amounts still participate in the inflation of the market: Riyad Mahrez (67.8 million euros), Benjamin Mendy (57.5 million d 'euros), Kevin De Bruyne (76 million euros) or Bernardo Silva (50 million euros).
Nothing seems too expensive for superstar coach Pep Guardiola to break through City's glass ceiling in the Champions League.
"For the Emiratis, sport also serves to establish themselves with local and national elites. The goal is to have access to real estate, economic and financial opportunities before others and thus to make lucrative investments in multiple sectors", analysis Jean-Baptiste Guégan.
Solve the Gulf crisis?
Relations between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have not been easy since Doha refused to join the Emirati federation in 1971. They first deteriorated in 1995 when Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al -Thani dismisses his father, Emir Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani, to seize power in Doha - a coup that worries the entire region. Subsequently, Qatar will blame its Saudi, Emirati and Bahraini neighbors for having attempted a counter-coup in 1996 to replace the former leader.
The rivalry between Gulf countries took on a whole new dimension in the summer of 2017. Abu Dhabi then pushed Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt to impose a land, sea and air blockade on Qatar. The United Arab Emirates criticizes its neighbor for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and for being close to Iran, the great Shia rival of the Sunni Gulf monarchies.
After three and a half years of blockade, the discord between Abu Dhabi and Doha officially ends on January 5, 2021. Under pressure from Saudi Arabia, anxious to put an end to a crisis that has permanently weakened the unity of the Gulf countries Faced with Iran, the Emirates have no other choice but to agree to renew their diplomatic relations with Qatar, which is emerging from the standoff with its head held high and without having made any compromise with its neighbors.
This reconciliation, which took place in January, made it possible to bring Qatar out of isolation and promote appeasement.
But "there is always a lot at stake," Simon Chadwick, professor at EM Lyon, told AFP.
"The animosity has evaporated somewhat, but the battle to be the first Gulf nation in football remains."
In 2016, the defeat of PSG against Manchester City, seen as a humiliation, ended with the departure of the Parisian coach, Laurent Blanc.
Since then, Qatar has taken its football revenge on its Emirati neighbors with its national team by winning the Asian Cup at home, even beating them 4-0 in the semi-finals, all in full blockade.
"The match between PSG and Manchester City could be the occasion of a beautiful photo, at least sealing the reconciliation between the two countries on the front. The atmosphere is absolutely not to raise the sauce around this match. Guardiola and Pochettino respect each other too much and the management had to pass the instruction not to do too much ", advances Jean-Baptiste Guégan.
"For this game, the tension is elsewhere."
PSG against the "mutineers"
Indeed, the Super League has been there.
Manchester City is committed alongside eleven other clubs (Real, Juventus, Barça ...) to create a private and almost closed tournament, which would guarantee higher income than in the Champions League.
For its part, PSG opposed the project and its rapid abandonment offered a triumph to Parisian President Nasser al-Khelaïfi, who posed as a defender of those who "love football".
The only club in the last four of the C1 not to have signed for the Super League, Paris now sees itself as a missionary in charge of avoiding UEFA's shame of seeing one of the twelve "mutineers" lift the trophy.
>> To read also: "Life and death of the Super League: 48 hours which almost changed European football"
🔴 A disproportionate risk in relation to the gains: splitting up the football authorities to increase the revenues of PSG alone would have affected the effectiveness of the long-term strategy carried out based on a sport power sport vital for the Qatari State.
2 / pic.twitter.com/9kzxMOsQ6s
- Jean-Baptiste Guégan (@jbguegan) April 21, 2021
"Nasser al-Khelaïfi as a white knight saving popular football, that gently smiles," comments Jean-Baptiste Guégan.
"In reality, the Super League episode showed how the logic differed between Manchester City and PSG. The former is there to make money and therefore welcomed the project with open arms. PSG is there in a logic of influence and has won the trust of the authorities by being very close to the decisions. "
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