“Football, the world’s most popular sport, played by laws drawn up in London in 1863. The Premier League is the UK’s greatest soft power export. Premier League clubs are owned by a deputy prime minister of Abu Dhabi, the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia, a billionaire based in Monaco for tax reasons and a disappointing assortment of investors and private equity funds. And what, really, could be more British than that? Football truly is the national game. What the Manchester City case has exposed is just how difficult it is to regulate some of the richest and most powerful bodies in the world. Football clubs in England and Wales still represent their communities, a relationship that may be strained in certain cases by the pressures of a globalised entertainment economy, but remains broadly true. Arsenal can feel like the club of choice for the nouveau fan from across the world, but the scenes of celebration when they ended their 22-year wait for the league title last season were an undeniable expression of local pride. …”
Guardian