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FOR THE
LOVE OF THE GAME
tHAt QAtArIS LoVe tHeIr FootbALL IS Not IN DoUbt, bUt WHAt MAKeS A HIGH-ProFILe LocAL bUY A LoW-ProFILe SPANISH cLUb? QATAR TODAY bLoWS tHe WHIStLe. By John Hunt
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f you asked 100 people, anywhere in the world, to name a famous football club, you would get pretty short odds on any or all of the following being mentioned: Manchester United, Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid. Of these clubs, the last two are Span58
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The Málaga players line up prior to this season’s opening game.
ish (well, they both belong to the Spanish league, so for any Catalan Separatists out there, don’t bother writing in) and playing in that country’s top division, La Liga, which is also home to... Málaga Club de Fútbol, or Málaga CF for short. If you’re thinking: ‘who?’ at this point, then don’t be too hard on yourself, you’d most likely
have to be among the fans actually gathered inside Málaga’s home ground, La Rosaleda, on a matchday to hear this name proposed as one of note. Málaga CF, found in the city of the same name in the deep south of the Iberian Peninsula, was born in 1994. Reborn, perhaps, from the ashes of Club Deportivo
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Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Abdullah Al Ahmed Al-Thani (right) in the director’s box at La Rosaleda.
Málaga, who played in La Rosaleda in similar colours for 50 years before being dissolved in 1992. In the 16 years hence, it’s fair to say that Málaga have not shaken Spanish Football. Málaga’s best league performance to date was an eighth-place finish the season before last and they have represented Spain in European competition once, reaching the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) in 2002. Sounds like a pretty unremarkable club, right? Not quite. Since June, Málaga has been wholly owned by Qatar’s own Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Abdullah Al Ahmed Al-Thani, billionaire businessman. In becoming Abdullah’s property, the club is the first top flight Spanish outfit to be owned by a native of this region. A man who could appropriately be described as ‘solvent’, Abdullah found himself €36 million lighter having bought the club and its attendant debts. Pocket change, really, but the very nature of football, its ability to engender strong emotions in interested parties of all hues, means that what on the surface looks like a comparatively modest purchase raises an immodest number of questions.
Why Málaga?
The most pertinent question is simple enough: why buy Málaga? In its wake follow 100 other questions. To help us answer the query we enlisted the assistance of Málaga CF Press Officer Victor Varela and that of Ronnie Esplin, a journalist
with the Press Association who has been covering football worldwide for over 20 years. Says Valera, “Spanish football is going through its best moments in history, of that there is no doubt. “The World Cup victory has confirmed its place at the top of the FIFA world rankings, especially with regard to the way the game is played. The Spanish national team, with its attractive and snappy style, has become the ‘mirror’ that all the teams in La Liga try to emulate.” Esplin concurs, saying, “The English style of football has historically been renowned for its high tempo and getting the
Victor Varela Málaga press officer.
same kind of money, Abdullah could have bought a club like Rangers – wildly successful in the Scottish league and with a worldwide fan base – but ‘Quality over Quantity’ certainly seems to have been a factor in his purchase choice. What, however, can Málaga hope to achieve in Spanish and European competition going forward? The club’s past hasn’t been in any way successful and Valera admits as much when he says, “The history of football in Málaga has always been more linked to disappointments than to big achievements. Málaga CF has always been a humble club but
“The history of football in Málaga has always been linked to disappointment.” ball from back to front as quickly as possible. The Italian style: more technical, more tactical, cagier. For some time, and especially so in recent years, the Spanish style has been something of a mix of the two, making it attractive as an exciting spectacle but also one for the ‘purists’ who like to see the game played with flair, but within a structure.” While it could be argued that the purchase of Málaga just before the World Cup win was somewhat fortuitous in terms of the subsequent increased exposure, Spanish football is already watched worldwide, just behind the English Premiership in terms of popularity. For the
with the arrival of Sheikh Abdullah AlThani, everything has changed. The future looks hopeful and we would like to become one of the big clubs in Spain.” That’s going to be a tall order, according to Esplin. “Spanish football is essentially split into three strata,” he says. “At the top, you have Barcelona and Real Madrid, by far and away the biggest and most successful sides in Spain. Then there is a ‘second tier’ composed of popular and relatively successful ‘provincial’ sides such as Sevilla, Valencia and Atletico Madrid. Then there is the rest. Málaga find themselves in this latter category. “I don’t see it as realistic that a club october 10
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tag this in the space of a couple of months. If we want to have a great team, we have to take on the structure of a big club. Because of this, Sheikh Abdullah has made an important investment, and not only in the team, during his first months at the club. The project is exciting and the investment will be appropriate to the growth of the club and each year it will be more.”
A project, not an investment
Flag of the World and European Champions, Spain
from a city of 500,000 people and with an average attendance of about 20,000 could break the duopoly atop Spanish football, there just isn’t the history there, the nationwide popularity nor the ‘numbers’. The best Málaga could hope for is to break into this ‘second tier’ – and that’s not going to be easy,” he says.
Patience required
For Varela, though, the destination is distant, but visible, and the route navigable. “We must be patient,” he says. “We find ourselves in a period of transition, and as such we have to wait. New owners, new objectives, a new way of thinking, a new manager, new players and only one dream: to reach for a high position in the league and to consolidate this project. Everybody knows Rome wasn’t built in a day. “This team has the scope to improve and if [manager] Jesualdo Ferreira can shorten the time for the players to adapt, I’m sure that the team will bring many glorious afternoons to La Rosaleda. To be among the top ten clubs is our objective.” Here, importantly, is the recognition that growth is something best achieved organically. Ferreira is a manager of the highest calibre with a glittering CV from his near-30 year career managing in his native Portugal. It doesn’t look as if Abdullah is going to throw money at his new purchase willy-nilly as, with very few ex60
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ceptions, this approach rarely brings results with clubs that do not already have an extensive history of achievement and the legacy of being well-supported. Varela seems to appreciate this situation when he says, “Each club is different and it would be a mistake to compare the investments or the examples of other clubs. Málaga would like to be big, but not huge with feet of clay. We are trying to create
Now we know where the club is, where it has come from, where it hopes to go and how it hopes to get there. Although we lack an exact figure as to how large the ‘investment’ in the club will be, overall this should help us address the question previously posed. Of course, in attempting to ascertain why Abdullah bought the club, it wouldn’t hurt to include the thoughts of the club official. “Really I believe that Abdullah bought the club because he is a true lover of football. His link with football is already important in Qatar but now, as owner and president of a club in one of the best leagues in the world he is even more involved. This experience must be very exciting for him as it is for
“Sheikh Abdullah has already given the first lesson in good, sensible investment. If we want to have a great team, we have to take on the structure of a big club.” a good foundation on which to build a grand project in the next few years.” It was asked of Varela where Málaga CF would be in five years’ time and whether or not the two outcomes would vary. dependent on the amount of money Abdullah put into the club. Our respondent would not be drawn on the precise spending plans of the owner. “In five years, Málaga will be one of the great clubs in the Spanish League,” he says. “We will take the name of the city to all the stadia in Europe, this is our dream. We would like to continue to grow a little but more each year, until we have a place among the greats and can fight for more important titles. “Sheikh Abdullah has already given the first lesson in good, sensible investment
all those who are part of this project.” Esplin concurs to an extent when he says, “I don’t see how buying a club like Málaga could be considered a ‘vanity purchase’. For the same money or a little more you could get something much more high profile. It’s hard to second guess someone you’ve never met but I think Abdullah bought Málaga as a project, not an investment. Only about one percent of football clubs make money and Málaga would not be in that one percent. I really think he just wants to see how far he can take the club. “The Spanish league is of an exceptional standard, so it’s not going to be easy to get the club into the upper echelons. I guess he must really like football...” n