We (Sorta) Do Requests

Ten days ago, give or take, Whitney challenged one of us to pen a few words on the seismic news of Lionel Messi's agreement with MLS' Inter Miami. And like the dutiful amateur scribbler I am, I got to work. And then, like the practiced procrastinator I am, I got distracted. Which, in an odd way, is what the powers that be kinda want.

The things that distracted me were a flooding of the zone by moneyed interests across the sporting world, connected in various ways to a not-so-quiet campaign by oil-backed sovereign entities from the Gulf states. And while the dust has yet to settle, a reckoning is nigh, and I'm not terribly optimistic about what it's gonna reveal about our priorities as sports-loving folk.

The LIV/PGA TOUR bombshell was the first shoe that dropped and got global attention outside the sports page. But even before that, the trickle-turned-flow of big-name soccer players and coaches heading from Europe's top leagues to the Saudi first division was a head-turner for fans of the footy. Cristiano Ronaldo's $220m annual salary at al-Nassr turned a lot of heads. He'll be joined next season by Karim Benzema, N'Golo Kante, and Ever Banega, with Kalidou Koulibaly, Hakim Ziyech, Edoaurd Mendy, and Bernardo Silva among many rumored to be on the move to the Saudi Pro League. Former Tottenham manager Nino Espiritu Santo manages in the league, and ex-Liverpool star and former Rangers and Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard is rumored to be heading there soon.

We're talking about preposterous money, and while it's easy to sit on one's couch and badmouth ostensibly already wealthy dudes for grabbing the cash, I'd like to see the scenario where a 'normal' person turns down $100m for a year's work (that's what Kante is getting paid at al-Ittihad), even if the boss's boss is, ahem, problematic. Messi is a notable exception, rumored to have turned down $1.5 billion (with a 'b') over three years from a Saudi club to head to South Beach. To which we point out that, a) Messi allegedly has a net worth of over $600m, b) Miami is a bit different than Riyadh in terms of quality of life and opportunities for his family, and c) the deal he signed to come to MLS offers him all kinds of incentives, including an ownership stake in the team, and a percentage of new Apple+ MLS subscription revenues in addition to the rumored $60m in annual salary. 

Rumors also abound of a Qatari consortium's imminent acquisition of the crown jewel of English football. Qatar's Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, the son of the country's former Emir, is reportedly the leading suitor to purchase Manchester United from the Glazer family for a price nearing $6b (the Glazers bought the club for a highly-leveraged $850m 18 years ago - nice piece of business if you can get it). 

The sale process has been as agonizing for United supporters as has the entire Glazer era. The Guardian's Sean Ingle explains the feelings of the club's backers, "Purgatory spiced with speculation, hope blunted by stasis. So it goes for Manchester United supporters, for week after interminable week. It is nearly seven months since the Glazers put the club up for sale – the “anniversary” is Thursday. Yet the family remains in situ, still inflicting the sort of slow torture that would make Torquemada flinch, still desperate to make every last penny before they depart. If they depart."

Oil money's influence on the Premier League isn't new. Manchester City is the flagship in the City Football Group, owned by Abu Dhabi United Group, and the best team in the world. Over the past two seasons, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) bought a controlling interest in Newcastle United, and the Magpies quickly became relevant, earning a Champions League place for next year. And over the past day, news has broken that Todd Boehly's Chelsea partner, Clearlake Capital, manages billions of pounds of PIF assets. Conveniently, Chelsea are planning to move high-priced and underperforming assets mentioned above like Coulibaly, Ziyech, and Mendy to the Saudi Pro League. The web, she is tangled. 

The genie is out of the bottle, or if you prefer, Pandora's Box has been flung open and the hinges ripped from the frame. World sport is now irrevocably the playground of the uber-wealthy, even more so than its ever been. It's only a matter of time before the money comes calling for American sport. And therein the reckoning.

I'd like to be high-minded here, and claim that I'll stand on principle. My hypocrisy only goes so far, after all. But I think it'll go pretty far. Didn't miss much of the U.S. Open, did I? Watched the UEFA Champions League final - even bet on it - though it signaled the UAE's ascension to the peak and the likely last gasp of Serie A as a major league for a while. 

I can't quit sports, in the end. I bet a great many people feel the same way. So we'll watch on, grudgingly at first, then enthusiastically, as it'll be easier and easier to forget the machinations of the power brokers that make the bread and circuses possible. A prediction, before I sign off and watch some more soccer: the once-maligned Super League concept in Europe will be revived, because it'll satisfy the desires of the ungodly wealthy for more money, and it'll clear a path for the next tier of just really rich folks to compete against like-minded clubs in more local competitions. When Fulham win the Premiere League, version 2.0, it'll feel just like the real thing.