{"id":104906,"date":"2025-06-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/uae\/city-vs-al-ain-game-epitomizes-the-uaes-decades-worth-of-sports-investments\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T00:00:00","slug":"city-vs-al-ain-game-epitomizes-the-uaes-decades-worth-of-sports-investments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/uae\/2025\/06\/24\/city-vs-al-ain-game-epitomizes-the-uaes-decades-worth-of-sports-investments\/","title":{"rendered":"City vs. Al Ain game epitomizes the UAE\u2019s decades\u2019 worth of sports investments"},"content":{"rendered":"

The<\/strong> UAE\u2019s state-led investment in <\/strong>global (and domestic) sport is getting ink in <\/strong>the Athletic<\/a><\/strong>, which used Manchester City and Al Ain\u2019s Sunday\u2019s Club World Cup face-off in Atlanta as an entry point for a profile of the decades\u2019 worth of investments in sports from the Abu Dhabi-based Al Nahyan and Dubai-based Al Maktoum families. The sports news outlet points to a long-term strategy rooted in infrastructure development over splashy transfers, though despite the heavy investments, the local football culture is still behind others in the region and abroad.<\/p>\n

IN CONTEXT- <\/strong>The match brought together two clubs backed by the UAE\u2019s most senior leaders: City is owned by UAE Vice President Mansour bin Zayed, while Al Ain \u2014 the UAE\u2019s most decorated club \u2014 has been led by his brother, President Mohamed bin Zayed, since 1979.<\/span><\/p>\n

The business of sports in the UAE extends beyond direct investments in football clubs<\/strong> \u2014 airlines like Emirates and Etihad Airways are also sponsors of UAE-backed and UAE-based football clubs, including City, which is backed by the latter, and Al Ain, which is the official partner for the former. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The news outlet highlights Sunday\u2019s Club World Cup match in Atlanta between UAE-owned Manchester City and Al Ain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1551],"tags":[1360,7,82,1342,136,41],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-104906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uae-in-the-news","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-enterpriseam-uae","tag-football","tag-investment","tag-sports","tag-uae-in-the-news","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"ae26b3f0-cf84-490e-bbf0-791a2e07b150","order":"9","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2025\/6\/1357.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"City vs. Al Ain epitomizes the UAE\u2019s decades\u2019 worth of sports investments","related_issue":[104890],"teaser":"The news outlet highlights Sunday\u2019s Club World Cup match in Atlanta between UAE-owned Manchester City and Al Ain","voice_url":"https:\/\/s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/ent.news\/audio\/2025\/6\/.a31bd7f3-cec6-4187-b88f-8cc9cb49530f.mp3"},"yoast_head":"\nCity vs. Al Ain game epitomizes the UAE\u2019s decades\u2019 worth of sports investments - 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