Teams owned by Qatar and Abu Dhabi respectively meet in the quarter-final of the Champions League with rapid rises powered by their massive wealthThe multi-layered significance of Manchester City lining up against Paris Saint‑Germain at a glittering Parc des Princes in the Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday reaches far beyond the set‑piece glamour of the occasion itself. The tie,between two eye-wateringly expensive and lavishly paid squads, embodies the determining force of money in contemporary football, and in which international cast lists of players go to the European clubs which pay the most.
That City and PSG are now two of those mega-wealthy clubs heralds the game’s increasing openness to owners from anywhere buying its noted names; neither would be at the trade close of Europe’s premier competition without their owners’ enormous cash injections. And this quarter-final is a spectacular reminder of how football club ownership has come to reflect broader global shifts; England’s only representative in the competition is owned by one of the Abu Dhabi ruling family,while PSG belongs to another tiny, rival gulf state: Qatar.
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Source: theguardian.com