I rarely have good things to say about Qatar – not too enthusiastic about a state who treats the widows of dead immigrants world cup workers with hardly any hidden contempt.
But when I argued that a functioning democracy was one of the better points, a few years ago, I received an SMS from Manchester City, which seemed disturbed. Was anyone a briefing for Qatar? They asked me. Why did I write this?
It was a sign of how Abu Dhabi did not want any of their Gulf rivals – the least of all noisy Upstart Qataris – Spiert in their positive publicity, at a time they enjoyed a clear run to burn the Premier League and burn their image and to have the worldwide influence.
When Chinese Prime Minister Xi Jinping visited the UK in 2015, he went to the Etihad Stadium and was depicted with Star Striker Sergio Aguero. The photo ran on the front page of the Financial Times.
Well, those Halcyon days are over. The head start Abu Dhabi enjoyed the rivals in the Middle East, who have already started finding out, was shot into pieces by the extraordinary 4-3 defeat of Manchester City against Saudi-Arabian side Al Hilal in Orlando, Florida, on Monday evening.
And City cannot have any complaints, because the Saudis followed exactly the same model that they did, 15 years ago: throw almost unlimited petrodollars when building a team to challenge the establishment, in the light of a big spot. The money always talks in the end.
The Club World Cup is a nonsense nonsense by Saudi – there were a million empty seats in the group stage – but the result of Monday evening was built on the right football foundations. The excellence of Al Hilal's Ruben Neves, Kalidou Koulibaly, Man of the Match Brazilian Malcom, whose pace was too much for City, and goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, excellent all the tournament.
A sharp, intelligent counter-attacking display from which the city of Abu Dhabi-Zo long looks intelligent, progressive football, looks klaggy and defeated.
The new bragging of the Middle East that this brought this for Saudi Arabia added to what 48 hours of hell has been for Abu Dhabi and his self-proclaimed modest business refinement.
The established story in the city portrays Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the owner of the club, as a wise and beneficial individual, who presents the glory of the club from far.
But a report from the New York Times of 4,000 words, published in recent days, claimed that Mansour played a central role in helping a Sudanese army commander whose troops have brought hunger and one of the world's greatest humanitarian crises in the midst of the civil war of that country.
Mansour's relationship with Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan, reported the newspaper, was part of an aggressive Emirati -Push to acquire ports and strategic minerals to extend the influence of the VAE in Africa and the Midden -Oost and establish the golf nation as a heavyweight regional power.
Mansour and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Emirati did not respond to questions about the report, according to the New York Times, in a report that, according to the testimony of more than a dozen American, African and Arab officials, had been compiled.
Now Abu Dhabu is waiting for the outcome of the Premier League case against City on 130 charges for financial inappropriation. Whatever the outcome, Mansour's Executive Supremo Khaldoon al-Mubarak, chairman of the city, will portray it as proof of prejudices against the entrepreneurial challenge of Abu Dhabi for the football order.
But the city now represents that order. They are those who are confronted with a challenge from the Middle East Arrivists, as more and more state clubs come to power.
After 14 years, Qatari ownership PSG finally discovered how you could put together a successful football team and won the Champions League. The Saudi state has a huge ambition for Newcastle United.
Saudi, future World Cup -Gastheren in 2034, have shown at the CWC that the £ 750 million they have paid for club players pays a dividend.
This is Sportswashing 2.0, isn't it? Instead of going abroad to buy a team to wash an image white, we have a golf state from the middle -old who does it in a home floor, by creating their own sides.
The US has tried to establish a strong domestic competition for years, in a country where the sport is played by tens of millions, but never comes close to credible. Saudi Arabia, where nobody plays football, has done it for a few years. Could the emerging Saudi teams deliver Newcastle? Yes.
While this fight in the middle -old for geopolitical supremacy takes place through the prism of football, you have to ask what is for everyone what there is. City has made it clear that they want to use their state-owned companies to plow in as much 'sponsorship' money as possible. Thank goodness for the fight that the competition has held against it.
Also thank God that there are profit and sustainability rules that limit the losses that clubs can run over a period of three years. They offer a kind of check on unobstructed golf spending, without which the top of the Premier League would soon be outside the non-petrodollar states.
But despite the crash barriers, we have just witnessed the size of the challenge of the largest Gulf state of all. I also have no good things to say about Saudi Aarabia – not too enthusiastic about a state that kidnaps journalists and deprives them with a bone saw – but they come for football and there is nothing that someone can do about it.
The spell binding of advance of the next border of F1
I enjoyed F1: the film. Cheesy, yes, but an absolutely enchanting feeling of what it is like to be in the cockpit and racing at that speed. The silence there during various almost transcendental moments. Nice.
The most amazing number of $ 300 million production was the $ 40 million in advertisements and branding on the car that was sold for a fictional racing car, in fictional F1 races, for the film.
The racing scenes, recorded using tailor-made Mercedes and 6K resolution cameras mounted in cockpits, have delivered something that we do not see in the Netflix Drive to Survive series that F1 has transformed.
Breathtaking motorcycle races. Could this kind of content be the next limit of the real F1? Everything seems possible in a sport that has completely transformed its own fortunes.
Wimbledon has lost a very popular part of it
I spent Monday drifting the more remote courts of Wimbledon and longed for the line judges who were removed, lost to AI.
I saw Jelena Ostapenko raged against the machines, during her defeat against Brit Sonay Kartal – ironically clapping the camera that was used in the places of the jury that acted in the last set.
The challenges of the players for decisions and the reactions of the audience to them have been such a part of the theater. Some will say that we have to go further, but a considerable and loved piece of the spectacle has disappeared.
Bullingham glides up
We have the excellent prospect of the ladies -from Wednesday.
Some doubt the opportunities of England to continue from a group stage that throws them with France and the Netherlands. I'm not that pessimistic. I saw first hand on the last world cup how they grind progress.
But did the Fa's Mark Bullingham really say that manager Sarina Wiegman remains, no matter how the tournament goes?
How bad terrar for change. Happy to bump into. Can't we have a little more ruthlessness? Something to set the optimum competitive advantage? Determine these things when the tournament is done.