Sheikh Mohammed - the Elephant in The Room. Relatively new poster, though have followed this board for may years - and I thank all of the regular posters for their valuable insight. However a lack of pubs and regular social outlets (and a few noggins of whisky) leads me to the perils of the internet, and racing (along with music) are my main interests, so here I am reading the internet whilst listening to The Clash and trying to do some work. Just wondered what everybody thought about the latest revelations regarding Sheikh Mohammed. Whilst I've never been in favour of mixing politics/social affairs with sport, surely the latest serious allegations(?) against one of the sport's most serious backers are (to say the very least!!) uncomfortable for racing. Does anyone think racing could or should take any action ? Does it reflect badly on racing if he continues to be a major player ?
hi dave , welcome to the forum , good to have fresh perspectives , and you have highlighted an aspect of life that the stiff upper lip british establishment prefers to keep quiet . that the prominent owner of world wide racing operation is also the head of a despotic regime is something they just ignore , for obvious reasons , but then again the uk govt sanctions billions of pounds of weapons and systems to said regime . It’s alll part of the hypocrisy that surrounds so called trade , a feudal regime at best is the saudi model , yet their rulers indulge in western pleasures .........racing dare not upset these people as so much relies on their largesse , it’s a pretty ugly situation all round , but you will notice how there is almost a veil of silence about these relationships from the so callled press .
Interesting question Dave. Not one I think that racing authorities could address without blushing. As Rudey alludes to though this cover up runs much deeper than just racing, we are talking balancing world power here and the west cannot afford to upset this regime who at the end of the day are also sponsors of some of our greatest enemies. Welcome to the forum.
Thanks gents, nice to ease into the day with a spot of geo-politics. Agree that there are far bigger issues than racing involved, and, in very base terms, a lot of principles go out of the window when you are dealing with individuals and states with bottomless reserves of cash, quite agree we should not be selling arms etc to this sort of regime (but then what kind of regime needing arms is an ideal customer !!). However in racing terms, we are now at embarrassing state where one of the very biggest players appears guilty of some fairly heinous crimes. Surely the likes of Investec or other major sponsors are going to be looking hard at their marketing spend if the Sheikh is pictured holding their trophy in front of their logos . Are other owners at the yards of (for example) Charlie Appleby etc going to be happy to be associating with these people - this could seriously damage racing's credibility (as well as finances). This just seems a bit big to gloss over surely.
I’d actually kick him out of British racing - let him run his Dubai Carnival every year and cast envious glances across Epsom Downs.
the problem is the Queen takes an envious glance across to what’s happening in Dubai and is thinking “Why didn’t I do that with Andrew!”
I watched Panorama last night and whilst it was troubling, I must admit that I wasn’t shocked or surprised by it. Having seen what happened with Haya and the courts it is clear that all isn’t well in Dubai and UAE. it also doesn’t surprise me that the UN have done very little to help with the situation and what they did do was a botched process that caused more issues. In terms of racing and Godolphin, I don’t see British racing doing anything proactively to show their discontent. It would take sanctions from government to put racing into a position to ban his runners and that won’t happen. It leaves flat racing in a pickle and one that the BBC will gladly pick up on at every opportunity.
The Premier League claim to have a "fit and proper person" test to judge if you should run a football club, but it is hard to imagine what level of depravity someone would have had to sink to to fail it.
I am not sure which is the biggest joke Dave, FPP or FFP. The list of criminals who own football clubs is ridiculous
Now THAT is a sport which has been absolutely ruined by money. To be honest, if you look hard enough at any premier league club owner you will find all sorts of **** equally as bad as Sheikh Mo has done. You don’t get that amount of money by being a really nice guy.
It's all very much a charade isn't it , provided your crimes are hidden and you observe the rules of the game , no one is debarred apart from the odd gangster
I think flat racing would survive without the Saudi Royal family. I thought that Gigginstown winding down things would decimate Irish jumps racing but they appear to be going from strength to strength. To be honest (and this would be a question for Princess) I’m not sure whether the billions spent by Godolphin have actually done much for the breed? For me there have been far more influential owner/breeders. Kick them out, set an example. Plenty of other wealthy owners out there.
I think in Germany all clubs are at least part-owned by their fans, which sounds like some sort of utopian dream. When even the likes of my football team (Bristol Rovers - who I'm the first to admit are consistently poor), are owned by some Jordanian prince, the soul of football has long since been sold. Racing has always been the Sport of Kings (ad the obscenely wealthy), and used to be exclusively so but I feel it's kind of gone the other way and become more accessible to the "regular guy", with things like syndicate ownership meaning the likes of you and me (I know some of you have been involved in ownership in this way, as I was many years ago), have in theory the same access to the heart of the sport as the mega-rich and the aristocracy.
I’m a Sheffield Wednesday fan and rumour has it that our Tuna-magnate owner is refusing to turn the hot water on at the training ground so the players can’t shower after training. Purely to cut costs you understand (I would be all for it if it were some sort of motivational bonding technique designed to improve team spirit and ultimately the results on the pitch, but he is just being a tight bastard).