Like many professional teams, the Washington Wizards posted a statement on their social media condemning the brutal attack by Hamas on Israel last week.
“The Washington Wizards stand with the people of Israel.”
Well, not everybody.
The Wizards’ and Monumental Sports’ newest business partner — Qatar — had a different point of view.
Their Ministry of Affairs, nearly at the same time, issued this statement:
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs holds Israel alone responsible for the current escalation due to its ongoing violations of the rights of the Palestinian people.”
While the Wizards and Monumental were standing with Israel, Qatar officials were issuing statements suggesting Israel’s response to the horrific attack by Hamas might be used “as a pretext to ignite the fire of a new unequal war against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”
It didn’t take long for blood to spill all over the money Transparent Ted Leonsis took from Qatar.
Sportico reported in June that the country’s sovereign wealth fund — the Qatar Investment Authority — bought an estimated 5% piece of Transparent Ted’s Monumental Sports and Entertainment company — the NBA Wizards, the NHL Capitals, the WNBA Mystics and other holdings.
Last November, the NBA approved a change in ownership rules to allow sovereign wealth funds to buy minority stakes in teams.
The Qatar investment in Monumental Sports was called a “passive” one, according to one NBA source who did not want to be identified, with “no involvement in the operation” of the team. It is not a “traditional business partnership,” said another source familiar with the Monumental organization who asked not to be identified.
Everyone fell over themselves trying to tell me Qatar really wasn’t a business partner at Monumental. But no one from Monumental Sports, including Transparent Ted, was willing to speak on the record about the Qatar investment.
Appearing on the Dan Patrick Show in June, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said, “I hear the comments about sportswashing. On the other hand, you’re talking about it, others are talking about it. … In the same way the World Cup — the football World Cup, soccer World Cup — brought enormous attention to Qatar. I think people learn about these countries, learn about what’s happening in the world in ways they otherwise wouldn’t. So I think the media does its job.
“But … now talking specifically about the NBA, where we’re such a global sport, I think people are a little too dismissive these days about the benefits that come from the commonality around sports. That with a sport like basketball — our finals are distributed virtually everywhere in the world, the sport is played everywhere in the world — it’s an opportunity to bring people together.”
Anyone feeling that commonality yet?
Qatar may do business with hundreds of American companies. But their entry into Monumental Sports was a big deal. It was the first time any sovereign wealth fund had become a part-owner of an American sports team.
“I think you’ll see that as being very very smart business for the leagues,” Transparent Ted declared last week at Sportico’s Invest in Business Conference in New York.
I guess Transparent Ted thought it was safe after Qatar had hosted the 2022 World Cup — as if doing business with the gangsters at FIFA would legitimize the government.
Qatar is a Middle Eastern nation that has tried to have it both ways — seen as both an ally of Western nations and Hamas terrorists.
Last week, Reuters reported Qatari mediators were in talks with both Hamas and Israeli officials to negotiate the release of the women and children that the Palestinian militant group took hostage during its assault.
But according to foreignpolicy.com, Qatar welcomed the Muslim Brotherhood when it was forced out of Egypt in 2013, and the top leaders of Hamas, which the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood created in the late 1980s, have maintained a presence in Doha, the capital of Qatar, for a little more than a decade.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that two former senior U.S. security officials called for military action against Hamas leadership allegedly being provided safe haven in Doha if Qatari authorities don’t hand the officials over to the U.S. or Israel. Ismail Haniyeh, president of the Hamas political bureau sanctioned by the U.S. under terror powers, allegedly oversaw from Doha the strike against Israel, the Journal reported.
The money Transparent Ted took from Qatar was dirty before the attack by Hamas.
I wonder if any profits Qatar receives from Monumental Sports will be passive. And if they make any money, where will it go? Whose pocket will it wind up in?
This, according to Transparent Ted, is smart business.
⦁ You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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