Covering a football club owned by a nation-state is far from a run-of-the-mill gig, but with the advent of nation-state ownership of football clubs in the UK, separating the ownership from the club has become a minefield.
For Manchester City, a club that’s been threatening to run away with the Premier League title for what feels like years on end now on the back of the state of Abu Dhabi’s investment into the club, the discussion around the club’s success has been fraught with the tag of sportswashing.
In such times, however, journalists have an even meatier role to play in speaking truth to power. How are sports journalists dealing with the advent of the age of nation-state ownership in football?
The Athletic’s Manchester City correspondent Sam Lee sheds some light on the myriad issues journalists like him have been facing when it comes to covering an institution that’s racked up silverware by the dozen in recent years.
