Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City squad set off for Jeddah just hours after dropping another two points in a Premier League season that was disrupted by the minor incident of reaching the world title for the first time in the club’s history.
The club, which has been flying the Abu Dhabi flag in England for 15 years, on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia, will compete for the only major trophy missing during the Guardiola era. If English football has always treated the Club World Cup (or the Intercontinental Cup as it was formerly known) as an afterthought, this week in the Gulf is no different.
The Saudi ruling class, led by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, has put sports at the center of their global campaign to change perceptions of this oil-rich, secretly authoritarian state. In Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, this process began in part with the acquisition of City in 2008, which subsequently grew into the City Football Group, which is now a network of 12 clubs around the world.
Guardiola’s City are stung by a run of just seven points from their last six league games and the shadow of the Premier League’s 115 charges looms large, but the next few days are not about the politics of domestic football or even European football. Rather, it’s about their role in struggles between the super-rich absolute monarchies that manage billions in fossil fuels in the Gulf. Struggles for power, wealth and influence in diplomacy, business, football and occasionally even war.
The royal courts of Abu Dhabi and Riyadh are currently at odds over their positions in Middle East politics. In East Africa, they have supported different rebel groups in the war currently being waged between two rival powers just over the Red Sea in Sudan. Both countries are trying to diversify their oil-based economies in a way that is commercially sound and reputationally beneficial.
Among these is football. UAE vice-president Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed owns City, the European champion and perhaps soon-to-be world champion. City is Abu Dhabi’s flagship sports project and Mansour also backed the Barclay family’s £1bn bid to regain control of the Telegraph. Saudi Arabia has the Saudi Pro League, backed by more than £1bn of investment, and the Public Investment Fund-owned Newcastle United.
If City get past Asian champions Urawa Red Diamonds on Tuesday and reach the final on Friday, they will leave Jeddah as a new show begins in Saudi Arabia. On Saturday night, Antony Joshua tops the boxing card in Riyadh, which also includes his rival Swede Otto Wallin and Deontay Wilder. Soundstorm music festival was held in Riyadh this week; Names included Calvin Harris, Metallica, 50 Cent and Will Smith. LIV Golf was in Jeddah in October.
Boxing and golf have also played an important role in Saudi Arabia’s effort to project a modern face to the world while also appeasing conservative elements that form a significant part of its power base. At the same time, both Saudi and the UAE are facing tough questions about their human rights records and trying to maintain a tight grip on power at home while changing the global profile. This week, the two have a rare meeting, albeit not the one Saudi Arabia had hoped for at the start of the Club World Cup.
Saudi champions Al-Ittihad, featuring Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante and Fabinho, lost the play-off against Egypt’s Al Ahly at the King Abdullah stadium on Friday night. This means African champions Al Ahly will face Brazil’s Copa Libertadores champions Fluminense in the first semi-final on Tuesday night.
This is Saudi Arabia’s first FIFA Club World Cup. Abu Dhabi has hosted three of the previous six fairs. FIFA president Gianni Infantino is now a firm ally of the Saudis and supports the kingdom hosting the 2034 World Cup finals. FIFA’s sleight of hand on the prize for the 2030 tournament means the Saudis will bid unopposed for the 2034 tournament next year. Infantino convened a Fifa Council meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Jeddah on Sunday to, among other things, ensure Fifa’s right to participate in the expanded 2025 Club World Cup.
Professor Simon Chadwick, of Skema Business School in Paris and an expert on the region and its sporting aspirations, says the prospect of Abu Dhabi’s flagship club becoming world champions in Saudi Arabia is significant. “Saudi had lost its way and squandered its wealth in the last 20 years,” he says. “The government intervened too much and was overtaken by local rivals. “Abu Dhabi is important because many senior figures there think Abu Dhabi is a leader in the region.”
Chadwick points out that the struggle for global credibility dominates Gulf politics. City’s main sponsor, Etihad Airways, is the only Gulf airline currently flying to Israel. In light of the war in Gaza following the terrorist attacks on October 7, the Saudis have backtracked on normalizing relations with Israel. Abu Dhabi had already done this. Chadwick says Saudi Arabia has cut funding for its proxy war in Yemen in order to spend money on projects that change international perception, especially in sports and football.
“Saudi is trying to fight back and define a new place for itself in the world,” he says. “He’s actually still trying to make things work. Abu Dhabi has been receiving some international backlash for sports washing. “The Saudis are facing a much bigger backlash over sports washing.” Chadwick says that Saudi and Abu Dhabi were aligned in the blockade imposed on Qatar between 2017 and 2021, and the situation changed again due to the diplomatic crisis that emerged as a result.
“Saudi is on a charm offensive,” he says, and continues: “The two countries are fighting against each other. There is a view among some that the most disruptive influence in Africa right now is Abu Dhabi. “There are fundamental differences between Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.”
This time last year at the Qatar World Cup finals, Bin-Salman was a conspicuous presence in the VIP areas of the stadiums, often alongside Infantino. But this was the Qataris’ show, and they earned the diplomatic benefit of global scrutiny. This is a role the nation has played in mediating between Israel and Hamas in recent months.
There will be a Saudi demonstration this week, albeit on a much smaller scale. Still, it comes with the assurance that under Infantino’s FIFA, they will get the biggest tournament, the Fifa World Cup finals, in 2034. On Friday night in Jeddah, the Fifa team and the Saudi hosts will most likely be handed the trophy. Guardiola’s City have reputations to burnish, as do their owners in the Gulf.