soccer
Status: 03/30/2023 7:13 PM
No one who has been sanctioned for human rights violations will be allowed to become a manager or owner of a Premier League club. Clubs in the English Football League’s top flight have agreed to a similar change to the rules, the league has announced.
Accordingly, people who have committed crimes such as violent crimes, corruption, fraud, tax evasion and hate crimes will not be allowed to chair Premier League clubs. Also, people who have been sanctioned by various UK organizations are automatically excluded from club leadership.
The English Premier League has recently come under fire from human rights organizations such as Amnesty International for allowing Saudi investment fund PIF to take over Newcastle United.
“A step in the right direction is now taking into account human rights and hate crimes,” Peter Frankenthal, director of economic affairs at Amnesty International, was quoted by the French news agency AFP.
However, according to him, “it wouldn’t make much difference if powerful individuals linked to serious human rights abuses abroad were not prevented from taking control of Premier League clubs and being used for state sport laundering”.
For Frankenthal, all concerns have yet to subside: “For example, would a future bid involving Saudi or Qatari sovereign wealth funds be blocked under this rule? It’s not at all clear that that will be the case,” he said.
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