Elliott and InvestCorp are at a crucial stage for the sale of AC Milan football club.
The American hedge fund and the Bahraini Investment company have been in talks for a while in order to secure the purchase of the Rossoneri football clubs. According to multiple reports, a deal could be done somewhere close to 1.2 billion euros.
The Arab fund, though, have been accused of 'sportswashing' (a term used to describe an organisation or a government which would buy a sports club or organise a sports event in order to build a better reputation and drive the attention away from their shady and illegal activities).
The purchase of AC Milan is a move that the NGO called 'Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain' does not like.
A statement by the organisation has been published, relayed by Milan Press:
"Italians love football. But why are we so fond of it? Because, as individuals and as a community, we see ourselves in the values of football competitions. Football is union, brotherhood, bond, healthy competition, traditions, history, family stories. So why do we have to ruin such a deep and touching attachment with one of the most immoral and dishonest practices of this century: sportwashing . A clear example of this type of operation is the victory of Qatar as host country of the World Cup. The Qatari government has already been at the center of attention for several allegations, such as the exploitation and suspected death of immigrant workers during the construction of the sites used for this event .The Rossoneri were less attentive, now ready to be sold for 1.1 billion euros to a somewhat ambiguous company, Investcorp , a billion-dollar investment fund established in Manama but with customers from all over the world. and above all, from all sectors, both private and public. And it is precisely here that ethical dilemmas advance. What are its public customers? How much funds are given to the local government and the royal family? For years, Bahrain has been trying, with some success, to improve its reputation as an illiberal and dictatorial regime that silences, by any means, any kind of religious, political and cultural dissidence, leaving the majority of its society to rot in the depths of society .Outside, however, Bahrain shows itself to be avant-garde, westernized, sporty and healthyly competitive. One of the most influential football leaders in the region comes from the Bahraini royal family. His name is Salam Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, and according to La Repubblica, he is among the most involved in this negotiation. President of the Asian Football Confederation, vice president of the FIFA disciplinary commission, and almost president of the same in 2016, if he had not lost in the last ballot, Salam is part of a 5 billion dollar family that on the one hand struts a love for the immense sport, also hosting one of the most coveted Formula 1 races, and on the other massacres their fellow citizens by torturing them, imprisoning them and depriving them of all rights only for being born into the wrong sect of Islam (Shiia), or for expressing peaceful disagreement with the ferocious laws that annually drastically reduce citizens' freedoms. Investcorp is no exception. Constantly ready to support the royal family in all its ambiguous initiatives, the Bahraini fund has already shown great income with the royal family. Investcorp has since last year become the new sponsor for the Bahraini Prince's International Scholarship. The Bahrain Crown Prince International Scholarship Program (CPISP) aims to support the study abroad of the country's most distinguished students, for a total of 1 million Bahraini dinars, for the next ten years. According to the fund's press office, "Investcorp is committed to enriching the lives of future generations" by strongly believing that "education is at the heart" of this project. It is a pity therefore that we forget about the thousands of children, unfortunate enough to be born 'Shiites', or without even a citizenship and forgotten by the state, forced to live among the scum of society, like street thieves or worse, as sex slaves. And if we go deeper into this story, we find another Middle Eastern mega-fund, Mubadala, which involves several sheikhs of the Gulf including, of course, the Al Khalifa family."
