NFL players determined to draw positives from anthem protests
Taking the knee shines spotlight on player activism
LONDON: Donald Trump’s tweet storm over NFL players taking the knee during the national anthem took the sport by surprise but the gridiron greats are ready to turn the furore into something positive, according to Ahmed Nassar, president of the licensing wing of the NFL Players Association.
While known for big hits and touchdowns, all the talk about American football over the past two weeks has been dominated by players protesting police brutality and racial inequality by kneeling during the pre-game rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner.
That is not least because President Trump waded into the debate during a speech urging NFL owners to fire players who kneel during the anthem, and encouraging fans to walk out.
Since then the president has taken to Twitter to further lash out at the players, which has only led to more players taking the knee with the support of the clubs’ owners.
The protest started 13 months ago when Colin Kaepernick, then playing for the San Francisco 49ers but now without a team, took the knee during the US national anthem to provoke debate about racial inequality across the country.
But while the situation has seemingly set the sport and its players up against the president, Nassar said NFL players are determined to ensure some good comes out of the crisis.
“It’s caught everybody by surprise. It was an issue last year when Colin first started doing that. It certainly exploded once the president resurfaced it,” Nassar told Arab News.
“Colin’s not in the league and there was already an issue in that regard. In March, Colin said he would stand for the anthem if he were to be back on a team. Why we’re still top of mind in that way is anyone’s guess. We hold out hope it can be a net positive in that it’s brought players and teams, if not together, at least it's forced some hard conversations that were potentially being buried or avoided to this point. I view that as a good thing.
“We view sports as a great unifier, we were at the Vatican last year and the Pope said the same thing. Sport is loved for bringing people together, bringing people together through sport to overcome differences.”
The whole situation has shone a spotlight on players’ activism and charitable giving. That is what Nassar and the NFL Players Association wanted to highlight during a recent roundtable discussion in London. They highlighted the work of JJ Watt, the Houston Texans player who raised over $30 million for those affected by Hurricane Harvey; his goal at the start was to raise $200,000.
“I think players are interested in as broad a sense as possible. The players right now are in the early stages of figuring out where this goes from here,” Nassar said.
“It’s not so much what’s happening on the field prior to a game, but what is happening off the field with these athletes who care very much about their communities and respect very much their communities, their fans and the military.
“All these things you have seen brought up these past 10 days, and I think that’s where you see the real positive change begin to take root.” DUBAI: Amanda Staveley, the financial entrepreneur who made her name in Middle East investment, could use Arabian Gulf money in a possible takeover of English football club Newcastle United.
She is said to be interested in the club in the northeast of England, believing it shares similar characteristics to Manchester City, which she helped Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan of the UAE buy in 2008 for £210 million ($278 million), and which has since risen to the top of the English Premier League (EPL), helped by a big injection of Gulf cash.
A source close to Staveley told Arab News that her interest in Newcastle was at an early stage, that there had been no talks yet with Mike Ashley, the current owner, and that she was still interested in other clubs in the EPL.
But it was also indicated that a deal could be done relatively quickly, if serious talks got underway, possibly by the end of the year.
Staveley attended a football match in Newcastle last weekend as the guest of Rafa Benitez, the manager, signaling her interest in a possible takeover of the club. Ashley has said on several occasions that he would be a willing seller of Newcastle, which he has owned since 2007, at the right price.
Like Manchester City, Newcastle is a traditionally strong footballing brand in a city that is enthusiastic about the game, and also owns its own ground, the 52,000-seater St James’ Park stadium.
Unlike the City deal, however, in which Staveley acted as an adviser to Sheikh Mansour, she would be the principal investor in Newcastle, via her firm PCP Capital Partners. Any bid would be backed by funds from her extensive network of contacts in the Middle East, Asia and elsewhere.
Globally PCP has $37 billion of assets under management, with Staveley acting for big Gulf investors in London real estate and other assets, as well as for wealthy Chinese investors.
Any discussions between Staveley and Ashley are likely to focus on price. Ashley is said to have spent £300 million on the club in the 10 years he has owned it, so any deal would probably have to start at that price.
Staveley was earlier this year linked with a much bigger deal for Liverpool Football Club, where she was marginally involved in an abortive takeover by Dubai investors in 2007. She was also said to be interested in doing a deal with Tottenham Hotspur, the north London club.
She told Arab News in June that she saw English football as an “attractive investment,” but is believed to have grown interested in Newcastle since then. A source said that there were five clubs that she was analyzing from a financial point of view.
The identity of Middle East investors to help fund Staveley’s possible bid is not yet known. She has extensive connections in the UAE and Qatar, and has also been looking increasingly at Saudi Arabia, where she said she saw big investment opportunities on the back of the Vision 2030 transformation strategy.
English football, and the EPL in particular, has become increasingly attractive to global investors thanks to the billions of dollars paid to clubs for broadcasting rights, which in turn leads to higher worldwide TV audiences and advertising sponsorships.