UAE royal buys stake in controversial Israeli soccer club
JERUSALEM — Israel’s Beitar Jerusalem soccer club, which has gained notoriety for its racist fans and refusal to have an Arab player on its roster, announced on Monday that a member of the Emirati ruling family has purchased a 50% stake in the team.
The team said that Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, a member of the United Arab Emirates royal family, has pledged to invest 300 million shekels, or about $90 million, into the club over the next decade.
The announcement, following Israel’s historic agreement to establish diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates earlier this year, upended one of Israeli soccer’s most infamous and controversial traditions.
Beitar, loosely linked to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, is one of the country’s most storied franchises, winning 13 trophies and counting Israeli presidents and prime ministers among its fans. But in recent years it has drawn attention for being the only major club never to have an Arab player. Israel’s Arab minority makes up roughly 20% of the population, and Arab players star on rival teams and the country’s national squad.