Over a year ago, Nick Cohen wrote a piece for The Guardian saying football fans should be asking hard questions about the money behind leading clubs but that still doesn’t look like it will be happening any time soon.
So let’s look at Arsenal’s main sponsor, Emirates.
In 2004, Emirates signed a sponsorship deal with Arsenal, ahead of construction of the new stadium.
Since then, they’ve been the main shirt sponsor, as well retaining naming rights for the club ground.
2Emirates Airline
Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean Emirates Airline are the same. It does raise questions over how they treat their workers, especially in the founding country, however.
An article by the Wall Street Journal in 2015 reported cabin crew complaints of longer hours and shortened layovers. Emirates reportedly asked staff to work more shifts, and they deferred employees’ annual leave allocation. The airline denied these claims.
Meanwhile, a blogger writing on the website DoNotFlyEmirates made a rather disturbing allegation that Emirates employees aren’t subject to Federal Labour Laws in the UAE. They support this claim with screenshots of emails from multiple employees at the company.
If that’s the case, workers in the country wouldn’t have any legal support if Emirates violate their rights. Considering HRW’s claim that the country commonly ails to enforce Labour Laws anyway, it’s problematic either way.
It’s hard to say with any certainty how much the above claims of exploitation of workers and rights violations really come into play with the airline.
“Emirates Airline is a company that is wholly owned by the government of Dubai,” Odell added.
“In recent years, the human rights situation in the UAE has deteriorated considerably with practices such as arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances becoming increasingly commonplace.
“Despite this, many in the UK continue to associate the UAE with luxury holidays and sporting events rather than human rights violations.
“In some respects, such deals enable the UAE authorities to ‘launder their reputation’ through cultural institutions in the UK such as Arsenal Football Club.”