Giuseppe Federici Study Center – For a new onset
Press release no. 2/19 of the 4 January 2019, Saint Rigobert
No Daspo to the Saudi tyrants
The Super Cup in Arabia is crap? Our business with the Saudi regime even more so
Welcome to the hypocrisy fair: we are outraged by the racist howling at Koulibaly, then we play matches in the realm of female discrimination. We are scandalized because business prevails over rights, but our hunger for petrodollars never ends. And it doesn't start with the ball

Never underestimate football. Never lose sight of the rolling ball. The last of the miracles was performed precisely in these hours, reconstituting a sort of constitutional arch between parties even very distant from them (Brothers of Italy and Leo, Meloni and Boldrini, to say) on the criticism of the Italian Super Cup which will be played between Juventus and Milan in Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, il 16 January. Matteo Salvini, leader of the League, Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, he said: «The fact that the Italian Super Cup is played in an Islamic country where women cannot go to the stadium unless they are accompanied by men is sad, it's rubbish". Criticism also from the Democratic Party and the Five Star Movement.
And so. Saudi Arabia is a rogue state. On the contrary: if we combine unscrupulousness and wealth, it is “the” rogue state par excellence. For decades it has financed Islamic extremism and terrorism around the world. It's not a mystery, everyone knows it. Just think that already in 2002, after the attacks on the Twin Towers, the French counter-terrorism expert Jean-Charles Brisard had presented a report entitled "Terrorism financing" to the UN Security Council. Roots and trends of Saudi terrorism financing”. And that on several occasions, at least in 2009 and in 2015, Hillary Clinton, first secretary of state and then candidate for US president, reiterated that Islamist terrorism in the most diverse countries (including ISIS in Iraq and Syria) it was funded by the Saudis.
Plus, Saudi Arabia in recent years is dominated by a young man, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 33 years, which dispenses the death penalty like aspirin, discriminates (euphemism) ethnic and religious minorities, treats women as inferior beings, leads a war of civilian extermination in Yemen and, in spare time, gets kidnapped, kill and dismember inconvenient journalists, as the men of his secret services did with Jamal Kashoggi, murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
We should never deal with people like this, anything but the Super Cup final. Also because it's at least funny (euphemism) tearing one's clothes for the boos against Koulibaly and the bestiality of the racists in the stands, as Gaetano Micciché also did, vice-president of the Italian Football Federation as well as president of the Football League, and then gratify an oppressive regime, obscurantist and massacre like that of Mohammed bin Salman, even if the prince hunts 23 million euros (a tip, for him who administers a sovereign fund that by 2030 should reach the endowment of 2 trillion dollars) to host three of the next five Italian Super Cup finals.
I mentioned Micciché not by chance. Because his statements, in response to those of Salvini and associates, they described the underlying reality well, the one that matters. And that is that the boos at Koulibaly suck. That playing in Saudi Arabia sucks more. But the most disgusting thing of all is that having warm relationships with regimes like that is the norm, On the contrary: it is the backbone of Italy's relations with the Middle East. Here's what Micciché said: «Football is part of the Italian cultural and economic system and cannot have logic, especially in international relations, different from those of the country to which it belongs. Saudi Arabia is Italy's largest trading partner in the Middle East thanks to dozens of important Italian companies that export and operate locally, with our compatriots working in Arabia and none of those relationships have been severed. The football system cannot rise to authority on international political issues, nor can he make choices that do not respect the country system. On the contrary, it is a fundamental support for the promotion of Made in Italy and its values".
Which, in simpler words, it means: we in football are the majorettes and the fire eaters, but the circus is yours. You are the ones in the real business, those who sell bombs to the Saudis to use in Yemen, those who go on a diplomatic mission and then fight over the representative Rolexes distributed by the prince (November 2015, Renzi era), those who build the Milan business center with Bin Salman's petrodollars. On the contrary, please tell us thank you, because with our ballet we cheer up the crowds and pave the way for you. (…)
Article by Fulvio Scaglione, source: https://www.linkiesta.it/it/article/2019/01/04/milan-juve-supercoppa-arabia-polemiche/40621/a
source – http://www.centrostudifederici.org/nessun-daspo-ai-tiranni-sauditi-2/