Buerger Bites
From the desk of the Jewish Times publisherDubai’s Fault II
UPDATE: New developments call for an update to my last blog entry about Dubai denying an entrance visa to Israel’s Shahar Peer to play in the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, which run Feb. 25 to March 9. CLICK HERE
Since I wrote, several major sponsors announced they would pull out in protest, including the European Wall Street Journal. But lead sponsor Barclays PLC, an international bank, maintained is sponsorship claiming its agreement, “does not allow us to interfere with any actions or decisions that have to do with the tournament itself, or the players, or the regulations of the host country.”
It’s more likely that, according to Reuter’s news service, Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family, made a significant investment in Barclays. The Sheikh, part of Dubai’s ruling family, now has 16.3 percent stake in the bank, which according to my contacts in Dubai, amounted to a bailout for Britain’s second-biggest bank. So there is no way Barclays would pull its sponsorship of the tennis event.
Fortunately, it was announced that Israeli doubles specialist Andy Ram would be allowed to play. I guess the Dubai organizers believe that the protests that they said would endanger Shahar wouldn’t bother him. Or was it the $300,000 tournament fine on the country and the potential change of venue for next year that woke up the Sheikh?
The best news is that American tennis star Andy Roddick decided to skip the tournament all together in protest. “I really didn’t agree with what went on over there,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s the best thing to mix politics and sports, and that was probably a big part of it.”
Right on Roddick.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/26/09 at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)