Do new Premier League rules actually affect Qatari Manchester United bid?

Premier League clubs unanimously agreed on new rules that dictate the legitimacy of club owners and directors going in the future earlier in the season.

The rules themselves are quite far sweeping in nature as they set up further ‘Disqualifying Events’ that may prevent certain individuals from running football clubs in any major capacity in England.

Some of the new disqualifying events include individuals and corporations subject to UK sanctions, people involved in criminal offences such as violence, corruption, fraud, tax evasion and hate crimes to even people banned by third-party regulatory authorities such as the Charity Commission, Gambling Commission, HM Revenue and Customs, among others.

The rule that has caused the most conversation, however, is the Disqualifying Event that will see club owners and directors disqualified for human rights abuses, based on Global Human Rights Sanctions of 2020. Below is the official media release from the Premier League media.

The Global Human Rights Sanctions of 2020 were introduced by the UK government to impose sanctions on individuals or entities involved in human rights abuses around the world, according to some calculated guidelines and analysis.

These new rules have brought a lot of questions in regard to the sale of Manchester United, in particular creating a big question mark around Sheikh Jassim’s bid for the club. The Chairman of the QIS, Sheikh Jassim, publicly announced his interest to purchase Manchester United on 17 February, and since then, has submitted five bids for the club.

The UK government has previously raised concerns regarding human rights violations in Qatar, in particular, the treatment of the migrant workers involved in the construction of stadiums for the 2022 FIFA World Cup with the BBC previously being extremely vocal regarding the abuses workers faced.

The UK even offered support to help ensure the rights of workers are protected. Qatar did acknowledge that there are improvements needed in their treatment of migrant workers and have taken steps to ensure this, such as new labour reforms, changes to laws and more protection for migrant workers.

The Qatari government’s efforts to address these issues have been recognized by international organisations such as the International Labor Organization (ILO) and Human Rights Watch.

However, when it comes to imposing sanctions, based on the Global Human Rights Sanction 2020, the UK government has not imposed any sanctions whatsoever on Qatar, or Sheikh Jassim and his group. This would mean that the new rules imposed by the Premier League, do not affect Sheikh Jassim’s bid for Manchester United, and does not put him in jeopardy.

Qatar has also been accused of corruption and tax evasion, however, none of these allegations are specific to Shiekh Jassim or QIB, or any other institution involved in the bid, and thus which makes his bid for Manchester United safe, and under no question.

On the other hand, what would have been interesting is the case of Fabio Paratici, the former Spurs managing director of football, who had been charged by Italian prosecutors with malpractice and corruption at Juventus. Had FIFA not already extended his ban to other jurisdictions (including England) last week, he would still have been disqualified by virtue of these new rules.

An example of the Global Human Rights Sanctions of 2020 would be when the UK government on the 20th of July 2020 imposed sanctions on 20 individuals from Saudi Arabia for their alleged involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

One of the 20 individuals was Mohammed Bin Salman’s (MBS) former top aide, Saul al-Qhatani. MBS is the chairman of the Public Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund owned by the Saudi Arabia government, who also are majority shareholders of Newcastle United.

While the UK did not directly impose sanctions on MBS, they did state that he holds responsibility for the actions of those who were sanctioned. However, since he was not sanctioned, the sale of Newcastle was also greenlighted by the Premier League since the owners were not eligible for any disqualifying event.

Manchester United fans do not need to worry about the new rules and whether it affects Shiekh Jassim’s bid. He would not be sanctioned under these new rules and neither would the country of Qatar.