Off the Field Issues: Politics, Sportswashing, and Religion
Photo by Wonderful Time Photography
When Arsenal FC released their latest squad registration, a prominent name was left off the list. The World Cup winner, four time finalist for the male Ballon d’Or (football’s top individual award), and ten year’s veteran of Real Madrid and Arsenal, Mesut Özil, would not be playing any Premier League or European football this season. Questions were immediately raised about a possible link between his omission from Arsenal’s first team and his outspoken opinions on Uighurs Muslims in China.
First, a brief explainer on squad registration. All teams have to submit a 25 player list for both domestic and European competition. Simply put - if you aren’t on the list, you aren’t playing. Given that youth players do not have to be registered and that the Europa League has often been used by teams as a chance to play reserves against lesser opposition, Ozil’s omission is all the more surprising. There is also a question of his wages. £18 million is being paid to Ozil not to travel to play the mighty Dundalk FC or Molde. Just for full context, if Molde sold all their players for market value, they would still be around £7 million away from affording Ozil’s wages, never mind transfer value.
It is worth mentioning that Ozil’s fall is, at least partly, down to tactics rather than off-the-field politics. Without wishing to bore those with better things to do with their lives than watch English football, Ozil’s preferred role as a ‘No 10’ is no longer fashionable and the formations he can play in are increasingly being abandoned. According to the journalist Michael Cox, Ozil ‘wasn’t effective at pushing forward and scoring goals, he was never entirely comfortable [playing as a more balanced midfielder] and he became a defensive liability out wide. He needed to have the side built around him to thrive, and even then, he probably wasn’t quite consistent enough...[link behind paywall]’. Most of the players in the same mold have long-since retired or adapted. It could be that the German international has just been left behind in a world of Geggenpressing and Tiki-Taka.
‘I always do that before I go out. I pray’
Yet there remains, at least in part, the lingering suspicion of something more behind the scene. Ozil is a devout Muslim and has been very forthright about his faith and how it impacts him. He completed his Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca in 2016. He paid for 1,000 children to have life-changing surgery to mark his 2019 wedding to now-wife Amine Gulse. He prays before games. He is also reportedly close with the Turkish President Erdoğan, with the leader of Turkey being a witness at his wedding. With this in mind, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that he is outspoken on the topic of his fellow-Muslims in China.
In December 2019, Ozil posted a picture to his Instagram, condemning Chinese treatment of the Uighurs. Arsenal responded by distancing themselves from the post, making it clear that Ozil was acting in his own capacity and that the club does not share those views. The Chinese Government pulled the upcoming Arsenal-Manchester City game and replaced it with a taped Tottenham-Wolverhampton game (Tottenham are long-standing rivals, so this decision was surely designed to hurt even more).
The formula is simple. Arsenal maintain significant commercial investments in China, including a chain of restaurants, and the country is one of the most important emerging markets in sports. China is very protective of its international reputation, consistently denies any mistreatment of their Muslim minority, and is quick to react to any perceived slight. Ozil remains a prominent critic of Chinese policy at the time when Muslim nations have, on the large part, been quiet about a powerful country abusing their fellow believers. It is easy to believe that Ozil represents a sticking point in likely Arsenal expansion in China.
Months after the initial post, he remains unapologetic, although his twitter feed is gaining more attention for a post offering to reimburse Arsenal for the wages of the recently-fired Arsenal employee Jerry Quy (Quy was the inhabitant of the long-standing Gunnersaurus mascot). In an interview with the sports website The Athletic [subscription required] this August, he drew a comparison between his club’s support of the Black Lives Matter protests and their silence on the Uighurs. ‘...we saw George Floyd killed and the world spoke up to say Black Lives Matter, and that is correct...it’s fantastic the club is backing them. But I wish people would have done the same for the Muslims because Arsenal have many Muslim players and fans as well, and it is important for the world to say that Muslim Lives Matter.’
Sports and the playing fields of international politics
Ozil’s comments exist at a time of ‘sports washing’ and Arsenal’s decisions represent a common desire of sports clubs to keep politics off the field and away from the bottom line. Even acceptance of the BLM protests, which initially garnered a warm reception, was quietly withdrawn when the movement’s popularity started to wane and it was seen as being more political than social. The Premier League replaced the BLM logos with their own, long-standing ‘Stand up to Racism’ slogan under pressure from UK Conservative Party MPs.
The balance between bringing sporting events to otherwise ignored areas of the world and boosting the image of dictatorships is a fine one. Money is a powerful motivator in tilting this balance towards the latter and examples of this are easy to come by. The 2022 World Cup is still scheduled to be held in Qatar despite reports of mistreatment of workers and the corrupt process that awarded the bid to a nation with no real history of football. Azerbaijan, a dictatorship with an abysmal record of human rights violations, has hosted the 2019 Europa League final and a series of F1 Events. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is reportedly fascinated with the UFC and plans to use up-and-coming Chechen fighters as a means to shore up his domestic popularity and build ties in the US.
Saudia Arabia, arguably the Middle-Eastern leader of ‘sports washing’, has multiple events ranging across the world’s most popular sports. Boxing, golf, football, and wrestling events have all been scheduled as part of the Saudi regime's Vision 2030 to diversify their economic portfolio and boost their image. The Guardian reported that heads of the Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, and Los Angeles Olympics committee have also been involved in discussions to hold events in the gulf nation, which is to say nothing of failed efforts by a Saudi-backed investment fund to purchase the venerable Newcastle United.
Any one of Arsenal’s English or European rivals would happily take Arsenal’s spot (and revenue streams) in China for the price of dropping a player. Footballing politics in the Covid era has already seen the suggestion of a European Super League, featuring only Europe's elite behemoths, and Project Big Picture, largely concentrating power in the hands of the English elite. To stay relevant in today’s era of financial doping requires lucrative foreign markets and China is THE lucrative foreign market.
Since the controversy, Ozil has largely been kept off the pitch and has not featured at all since the season’s restart after Covid. It is worth noting that the drop-off was occurring prior to this controversy, with previous managers souring on Arsenal’s former talisman. Players who formed the nucleus of mid-2010s Arsenal, such as Alexis Sanchez, Laurent Koscielny, and Nacho Monreal have moved on. One former player, Mikel Arteta, is currently Arsenal’s manager. Maybe the time has come for Ozil too?
The End of an Era
Much ink has been spilled over Ozil for his on-and-off the pitch endeavours. There remains every possibility that Ozil is experiencing what most 32-year old players on high wages face - the realisation that the game has moved on to new heroes. The older heroes either accept lesser roles and fewer minutes or move on to leagues more willing to put up with declining results in exchange for having a big name (ironically, the Chinese Super League is just such an example).
Yet, to a certain extent, geopolitics will never truly be removed from the equation. Plenty of inferior players have remained in-and-around the Arsenal matchday squad and Ozil stayed an option even for those cold Wednesday night games against Europe’s second tier clubs. It is unusual for a player of his calibre, even one so needlessly expensive, to be completely withdrawn from playing duties. And China remains an important cog in many teams’ financial machines.
Ozil, when he does hang up his boots, will leave a decorated playing career behind, winning top honours for both club and country and having over 500 appearances to his name. The history of dominance of German Football and the last years of the legendary Arsene Wenger will feature his name prominently. Yet, he seems destined to fade into the middle-distance without much more than an Instagram post. At a time when both football seems to be losing its’ soul and politics seems to be losing its’ mind, is Ozil’s story likely to be the last?