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Simon Chadwick

It has been some weeks now since most of us watched live football, although there’s still been a match going on, albeit staged without the likes of Messi and Ronaldo being involved.
The game of giving has reignited the football season as debate has raged about how clubs treat their staff and whether players are responding to the current crisis in the right way.
Some, including the English Premier League’s Tottenham Hotspur, have furloughed non-playing staff whilst continuing to pay players their full salaries.
This has incited criticism, and many have castigated stars for their apparent lack of social conscience, especially fans who have criticised wealthy owners for taking money from government to pay the wages of some staff.
Liverpool’s owners have let down Jurgen Klopp, the players and the community with grubby furlough move
However, as many continue to bemoan the supposedly impoverished morality of modern football, there is a counterargument to it. Indeed, few seem to be highlighting an outbreak of generosity in the sport, the likes of which has possibly never been seen before.
Some players are displaying an awareness of their duties and obligations in these turbulent times, which includes players such as Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson who is leading an initiative that could see his fellow professionals in England taking a pay cut.




Yet such initiatives seem almost trivial among numerous, much bigger shows of generosity that are becoming increasingly apparent. But these are not about football’s biggest names taking a minor hit to their lavish lifestyles, they instead signify what 21st century football had become and is likely to remain.
As its Premier League rivals have furloughed staff, Manchester City have taken the decision not to. It would be nice to think that the club’s owners – the Abu Dhabi owned City Football Group – are displaying a level of social responsibility that many of their closest rivals have thus far been unable to match.
History won’t look fondly on Premier League clubs resorting to self-interest after pandemic crisis is over
Or, perhaps, City are simply a better managed club than others, though, many would argue, one that was more lavishly resourced in the first place. However, this generosity needs to be set in the context of an impending case that is due to be heard in the Court for Arbitration in Sport, where City are appealing a Uefa penalty for breaching its Financial Fair Play regulations.
An argument can be made that not furloughing staff is actually reputation management wrapped in generosity, rather than altruism. In this context, one therefore also wonders what the end goals of Abu Dhabi’s other public displays of social solidarity might be.
For instance, the small Gulf region emirate just waived rental fees at its ExCel Centre in London, which has been turned into a four thousand bed coronavirus hospital. Such generosity is much needed, though it is undoubtedly embedded in a wider network of political and geopolitical interests.
Some might think such a view is churlish and unnecessarily cynical during these deeply troubling times. However, the game plan for geopolitical generosity in football has been evident for months. In fact, the seeds of it have been germinating for several years.
In hard hit Italy, Inter Milan were among a number of high-profile organisations that rushed to assist the government’s fight against Covid-19, with the club donating 300,000 medical masks to the Italian Civil Protection Agency. It also donated other health care products including protective clothing and disinfectants.
Tellingly, the Milanese club is owned by a Chinese company, Suning, which engaged its supply chain network to support Inter’s efforts. These should in turn be set against the backdrop of the turbulence currently afflicting Italy’s relationship with the European Union.
UFC, Manchester City and NFL money networks see East meets West meets private investment
As Brussels has gone cold on Italy, so government in Rome has turned eastwards to Beijing to look for support. Football has thus proved to be a helpful enabler of this relationship, especially in this case given an existing and strong predisposition of many Chinese people towards Italian football.
China’s companies and their various interests in football across Europe are never more than a step or two away from government in Beijing. The fight against Covid-19 is therefore presenting some interesting opportunities for diplomacy and generosity that are likely to have an enduring impact.
But it is not just in Italy where such a convergence and alignment of multiple interests is manifesting itself. In the Czech Republic, China has been playing football diplomacy for some years. The country’s leading club, Slavia Prague, is even owned by an investor whose links to the Chinese government remain open to question.
Relations between Prague and Beijing had been souring of late, though the current viral crisis may herald a rapprochement between the two. China has been supplying the Czechs with large amounts of medical supplies, and Slavia Prague may therefore become instrumental to inter-country relations again in the future.
A similar scenario is evident in Croatia; a country also increasingly beholden to China and its current help, but a country that has also willingly played along with Beijing’s policy of football diplomacy.
With ties being solidified by Covid-19’s severity, we should therefore expect projects such as HNK Rijeka’s new stadium to proceed with alacrity once current challenges are overcome. Last year, China’s Top International Engineering Cooperation signed a memorandum of understanding with the football club to construct the new venue.
A tug of war between the emirates: Abu Dhabi and Dubai – two brothers battling in sports
As China plays the game of geopolitical generosity across the Adriatic, in the Balkans Russia is joining in. For years, Moscow has been using football as a means through which to cultivate political favour in Serbia. This has been premised upon mutual gas interests that have seen Belgrade’s – and Serbia’s – leading club Crvena Zvevda (Red Star Belgrade) first signing a sponsorship deal with Russia’s Gazprom, then later being reportedly subject to a takeover bid by the gas behemoth.
Recently, relations between Moscow and Belgrade soured as Serbia looked towards the European Union, which meant that Gazprom never followed through with its interest in acquiring the one-time European Cup winners.
However, with the European Union stuttering and stumbling in its response to Covid-19, Moscow has ridden to Serbia’s rescue. More than a dozen planes have flown from Russia with medical supplies. Post-virus, one suspects that football diplomacy between the two countries may therefore ascend the political agenda once more.
As most of us continue to grapple with the absence of live football from our lives, it is nevertheless important to remember that the game still goes on. There’s plenty of penalty box action and high scoring games taking place. But this is embodied in the current geopolitics of generosity, rather than at the Bernabeu or Old Trafford.
This piece is co-published with Policy Forum at the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy.


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The game must go on: global football and the geopolitics of generosity

Juventus’ Brazilian forward Douglas Costa (left) vies with Inter Milan’s Italian midfielder Nicolo Barella during a Serie A match played out in an empty stadium. Photo: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images

History won’t look fondly on Premier League clubs resorting to self-interest after pandemic crisis is over

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FILE PHOTO: ON THIS DAY -- March 30 March 30, 2019 SOCCER - Tottenham Hotspur and Inter Milan players from yesteryear took part in a friendly match which served as a final test event at Spurs' new 1 billion-pound ($1.25 billion) stadium in London. Around 45,000 fans turned to watch Inter win 5-4, ahead of the launch of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium which was supposed to open in September 2018 but had its inauguration delayed to 2019 due to a series of safety issues. The 62,000-seater was finally opened in April 2019, with Sours beating Crystal Palace 2-0 in the Premier League -- the first official game held at the venue. Action Images via Reuters/Matthew Childs/File Photo

A tug of war between the emirates: Abu Dhabi and Dubai – two brothers battling in sports

The clash between Arsenal and Manchester City is a proxy battlefield for emirate siblings Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Photo: EPA

Image: Handout

Photo: AFP

FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Europa League - Round of 32 Second Leg - Arsenal v BATE Borisov - Emirates Stadium, London, Britain - February 21, 2019 Arsenal's Denis Suarez in action REUTERS/Eddie Keogh/File Photo

Sport

Football


With on-pitch action on hold, the highest-stake games are taking place in high office
Scoring through altruistic displays is the goal now



With many nations looking east for assistance in their pandemic responses, ties currently forming may have a lasting impact on the footballing world.


Russia

English Premier League

Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

Based on factual reporting but incorporating the expertise of the author, offering interpretations and conclusions.  (Eg. Clash of Civilisations in South China Sea: will China or the US prevail?)


Analysis

Analysis | The game must go on: global football and the geopolitics of generosity

With on-pitch action on hold, the highest-stake games are taking place in high office Scoring through altruistic displays is the goal now

With on-pitch action on hold, the highest-stake games are taking place in high office

Scoring through altruistic displays is the goal now