- Why Arsenal are doing so well, and Tottenham are doing so badly.
- How do we know that referees are persistently biased?
By Tony Attwood
Does it matter who owns a club?
Probably not most of the time. Arsenal are owned by Americans sport investors. Liverpool are owned by an American sports investment company. Tottenham Hots is (I think) is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is a member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, and as Wiki puts it, “a prominent politician.” He is also Vice-President and Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates.
And if I have got this right, and here I am quoting Wiki, “On 28 February 2026, following the coordinated 2026 Israeli–United States strikes on Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran launched a multiday series of missile and drone airstrikes on the United Arab Emirates.” Which probably wasn’t very good for trade.
Wiki reckons that by yesterday, Iran had launched 357 ballistic missiles, 1,806 drone attacks, plus 15 cruise missiles at targets in the UAE.
Now I am not going to get into any political discussion or debate on the war here – there are multiple places far better equipped to handle such debates, and indeed multiple editors who will be far better than me at deciding what to publish. But I mention this because it does strike me that Tottenhm Hotspur might have a bit of a problem at some stage in being owned by those who are based in a country that is at war with Iran.
Of course, it can be argued that this will make no difference to Tottenham H at all, and that the fact that they have tumbled down the league of late is pure coincidence. Maybe so. Although the league table does look a bit dodgy from their point of view.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 31 | 21 | 7 | 3 | 61 | 22 | 39 | 70 |
| 17 | Tottenham Hotspur | 31 | 7 | 9 | 15 | 40 | 50 | -10 | 30 |
| 18 | West Ham United | 31 | 7 | 8 | 16 | 36 | 57 | -21 | 29 |
| 19 | Burnley | 31 | 4 | 8 | 19 | 33 | 61 | -28 | 20 |
| 20 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 31 | 3 | 8 | 20 | 24 | 54 | -30 | 17 |
Now I am not suggesting the Sheikh is day by day worrying about his investment in Tottenham Ho, while his country is at war and bombs are flying overhead. But it is possible that come the summer and the next transfer window, that Tottenham’s executive committee based in north London might be hopeful of some extra funds to help them buy a few more players, either so that they don’t have another relegation battle in 2026/7 or to help them get out of the Championship, if that is where they have ended up.
Of course, it might be that Tottenham and their owners have all these sorts of matters resolved, with someone who is in or close to North London in complete control of more than enough cash to see Tottenham through and out the other side. And indeed, maybe such a person has been given free rein already. And maybe that has already been announced while I was looking the other way at the time. In which case, there is nothing to worry about.
But it does strike me that this is not the only club with potential difficulties, for I think I am right in remembering that PSG were originally rather admired for being owned by their 20,000 members with a board consisting of rather well-off French businessmen, but who bought the club and sold it to Canal+ who sold it a bit later to Qatar Sports Investments and who seem to own well over three quarters of the shares.
And of course, that has been a good deal for those who like winning the league, but don’t care about the views of others in terms of details like human rights.
For most certainly, if one looks at the winners of the French league from 2012/13 ownward it has mostly been PSG. I might have added it up wrong, but it is something like 11 league championship wins out of the last 13 seasons. So those 20,000 members who owned the club might have loved winning the league year after year, but I wonder if they have had a moment to think about how this will turn out.
The point is that QSI has been the owner of PSG since 2011, and it is generally reported that the Emir of Qatar is the man with the final word on everything and anything the club decides to do is that one man.
Their approach has been to aim for winning the Champions League and they spend anything it takes to get there. Winning the French league, which they do almost every year, is a mere stepping stone.
But last year Uefa upped its game and suggested PSG were not really meeting all of Uefa’s regulations on finances.
Meanwile wars are unpredictable things, and the early statements from the owners of PSG that nothing would change since this was “not our war” in their words didn’t actually ring true. And what is interesting is that just as with Manchester City, the only words coming from the club are those which say “the war doesn’t affect us”.
And maybe that is true, but generally, when wars involving several countries do break out, we find that actually that isn’t true at all. And it is quite possible that PSG, the richest team in the world, might actually be affected by events a little more than they are saying. Just as ManC might. One never knows.
