FC Barcelona Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

Death and glory

Political connections and energy resources have put Bunyodkor on the fast track to super club status

Last week several British newspapers carried a story about a "row" between Fifa and the Premier League over the badge on Manchester United's shirt. United had won the Fifa World Club Cup last December and the world governing body wanted them to advertise the fact by wearing a new logo. The Premier League said "no thanks".

The football public here would probably side with their own competition, if they had an opinion at all. The World Club Cup might be worth something to United as it gives them the opportunity to aim for a quin rather than a quad this season, but to most fans it is an impostor, a "made-up" tournament that has no history, no integrity. It is known only for having put a dent in the FA Cup when United prioritised their Fifa matches in Brazil over domestic commitments in 2000. It is seen as something of a joke.

Elsewhere in the world, it is taken more seriously. The next tournament is nine months away, and nowhere is that gestation period more important than in Uzbekistan, the Asian outpost that is home to one of the most remarkable clubs in world football. Bunyodkor of Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, would like nothing more than to take on Manchester United, or even better their mentors and "partners", Barcelona, in the next Fifa World Club Cup. Judging by their progress so far, they might just do it. That would be some rare good news for a country that features high on the list of hellholes for Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others. Just what the despotic Uzbek government wants.

Four years ago Bunyodkor did not exist. They won promotion from the amateur second division at the first attempt, finished runners-up in cup and league next time out, and in their third season won the double, with a run to the semi-finals of the Asian Champions League to boot. They have a former World Cup winner in the team, alongside the Asian footballer of the year. Now they are getting serious.

Bunyodkor are building a new $150m stadium, despite the fact that their current 15,000-capacity home, built in a few months, is less than a year old. A friendly against Barcelona, whose president, Joan Laporta, flew in to lay the first brick last August, will mark the official opening of their new home this summer.

Other Barcelona connections abound. Lionel Messi, Carles Puyol and Andrés Iniesta were joined by Arsenal's Cesc Fábregas last summer in flying to Tashkent, for a reported €1m (about £700,000 at the time) each, to pull on the club shirt for publicity purposes and hold a football skills masterclass for the locals. Bunyodkor made further headlines with an audacious attempt to sign Samuel Eto'o on a short-term contract. There was much amusement around the world at the idea but they were not joking.

"My head started spinning when I heard what they offered – $25m to play for two or three months," Eto'o told the French television station Telefoot after flying to Tashkent, where he, too, gave a skills session.

Rebuffed by Eto'o, the Uzbek club turned to Rivaldo, a key man in Brazil's 2002 World Cup-winning side. At the age of 36 he was never going to refuse their offer of €10m for two years.

They had another World Cup legend, Zico, as coach for four months, before he moved on take over at CSKA Moscow, favourites to win this season's Uefa Cup.

By the time Rivaldo arrived, Bunyodkor's plan to become a "super club" was already in action. They had set up a three-year partnership deal with Barcelona – with the help of Emmanuel Petit acting as an intermediary – and the club's new badge even copies the shape of the Barcelona emblem.

Last Wednesday, when Barcelona thrashed Lyon to move into the quarter-finals of the Uefa Champions League, Bunyodkor – whose name means "creator" in Uzbek – began their second AFC campaign with a 2-1 defeat of the Saudi champions, Al Ettifaq.

What is going on here? Where does the money come from, and why is this happening in Uzbekistan? A glance at the club's lavish website, which is available in English, gives a clue. There are eight sponsors' logos on the site, all eight of them for gas companies. But that is not half the story…

It is not easy to get into Uzbekistan, which borders Afghanistan. The average weekly wage is below £25, unemployment is estimated by the World Bank at 40 per cent, and nearly a third of the population live below the poverty line. When Observer Sport paid a visit recently, the first thing the Bunyodkor sporting director, Azamat Abduraimov, said was, "You can't write about the heads of the club. We have a little censorship."

And plenty else besides.

European Union sanctions against Uzbekistan were lifted recently, much to the dismay of Craig Murray, the outspoken former British ambassador in Tashkent who has campaigned against the government. Murray says the Uzbek security services use "sheer brutality" against anybody who steps out of line, especially those aligned to the Islamic party Hizb-ut-Tahrir. Torture is widespread, say Amnesty International. The BBC website is barred.

A post-mortem commissioned by the British embassy showed that two dissidents had been boiled alive in 2002. In 2005 hundreds of people were shot down at a public gathering in Andizhan, and there has been no inquiry into the massacre.

Football has visibly become more important to the government in recent years. The autocratic Uzbek president, Islam Karimov, signed a decree which provided tax breaks for football two years ago.

So who is behind Budyonkor? It is not the Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov, the only Uzbek known to football fans in Britain. Speaking at the opening of an exhibition of Turner paintings he sponsored in Moscow, the Arsenal man said he was not Bunyodkor's backer and did not know who was.

"It is very good," he says of Zico and Rivaldo moving to Uzbekistan. "They are great players and can teach a lot." Usmanov may have been out of Uzbekistan for too long. As one fan from Bunyodkor's city rivals, Pakhtakor, says, "Everyone knows who owns the club."

Football officials are unwilling to pull back the curtain and discuss the club's backers. "In Uzbekistan most people are very scared of those in power as they have shown more than once how they deal with those who think differently," says Danil Kislov, editor of the Uzbek dissident news website, ferghana.ru. "It is better to keep quiet. It is a closed society and will remain so for long time."

The nominal owner is Miradil Djalalov, the head of Zeromax, a Switzerland-based company that has the biggest private business in Uzbekistan. The company works in oil, gas and cotton, the latter being Uzbekistan's biggest industry, and runs Uzgazoil, which has petrol stations all over the country. Djalalov is an immensely powerful businessman known locally simply as Odil. And behind him?

Gulnara Karimova, daughter of President Karimov and a would-be successor, is said to be ultimately responsible for the club's rise. Zeromax is widely considered to be controlled by her and dissidents say she is worth billions. Bunyodkor's remarkable rise could not have happened without extremely close ties to the government. "It's part of a campaign by the president to win popularity for his daughter," says Murray. "I hear that she will eventually replace him as president. The regime is trying to win popularity by the old-fashioned bread-and-circuses method."

Karimova is part It girl, part Margaret Thatcher. She is an Uzbek diplomat in Geneva, has her own jewellery line, sings, hosts parties and charity events, designs clothes and has huge business interests. She is said to have controlled Uzbekistan's largest mobile-telephone network and the gold-mining sector. According to a report in The Guardian she is seen as "the only person who can protect the assets of her father's family and cronies".

She acknowledged in a recent interview that human rights is a difficult area but says the situation in Uzbekistan is complicated, not least because of the threat of Islamic fundamentalist violence. Her involvement would make Bunyodkor a repressive government's secret project rather than the secret play toy of a mysterious multi-millionaire. "It is to show the world what does not exist," says Kislov. "That Uzbekistan is very successful."

Late last year, Bunyodkor flew down to Namangan, 200 miles south east of Tashkent in the Fergana Valley, for their last game of the season. Fans set out in cars for the four-hour drive through a mountain pass and past cotton trees stripped bare after the harvest. The Fergana Valley is the heart of Uzbekistan, home to a large proportion of the country's 27m population, and the site of the Andizhan massacre. It is the most passionate football supporting area in the country.

On the way into the valley, all cars – buses are not allowed because of the dangers of the mountain roads – are stopped for a check of documents. A visiting foreigner is noted down by hand in a large book before the car drives through. Signs along the mountain route warn that photography is prohibited.

Abdurahmon Fazilov, head of the Bunyodkor supporters' club, gives a barely believable account of life as a fan. Nobody drinks, he says, very few smoke, and the Bunyodkor followers always clean up after themselves at matches. As for chanting: "It's a team game, so nobody is allowed to sing about individual players, only the team as a whole."

On hearing this, a fan of Tashkent rivals Pakhtakor snorts with laughter. He tells of fights between the two sets of supporters. One report shown to The Observer by Kislov claims that Pakhtakor players were threatened with a pistol by Djalalov after they equalised against Bunyodkor in a game last August. A website floats the theory from an Uzbek football insider that the Bunyodkor fans are a way for the government to use fans as political support.

At half-time in Namangan, two rheumy-eyed home fans stand grumbling about the game and the referee's bias in favour of Bunyodkor. "It's the team of Karimov's daughter," says one fan with a hangdog look before the Bunyodkor media spokesman appears from nowhere to cut the conversation.

The following day, at training, a relaxed Rivaldo is happy to talk. "When I told my family [about Bunyodkor's offer] they were a bit shocked, they wanted to know what sort of country it was," he says. "There are people who say it is not a developed country but it has turned out not to be true."

Rivaldo's new home is bigger than the one he had in Athens, where he played for AEK, and he has brought along his own Brazilian chef. Zico arrived for four months last September after a call from Rivaldo and negotiations led by Djalalov. Uzbekistan was not a complete leap in the dark for him as he had admired the national team from afar in the 1990s when he was coach of Japan.

"It was a lot worse in Japan [than in Uzbekistan] when I went there," reveals Zico, who moved to Sumitomo in 1992, before the start of the J-League and the arrival of Gary Lineker, who was used to promote the game there in the same way as Rivaldo in the Uzbek Oliy Liga. "There is a public which loves football."

Murray is shocked that Barcelona, who have a shirt sponsorship arrangement with Unicef, should be involved with Bunyodkor.

"I am absolutely appalled," he says. "It would be like linking up with Adolf Hitler to promote a Berlin team in the 1930s – it really is astonishing even in the money-mad world of football to be quite that blind to morality."

Barcelona did not respond to requests for a reply to Murray's comments. They did say, through spokesman José Miguel Teres: "We have a cooperation contract with Uzbekistan. There is some technical assistance from our side for the trainers and managers and a friendly game in Uzbekistan to be played in the coming months." The deal is believed to be worth €5m to Barcelona.

Football is a powerful force in Uzbekistan, but the Bunyodkor project is seen as an extravagance too far in a country where many are on or below the breadline. "If you have money like this to pay a foreign footballer then you have the money to pay the people decent wages," says Kislov.

"It is luxury in the face of poverty."

BARCA CONFIRM FABREGAS FANCY
Posted 03/04/09 07:00

Arsenal Stage Of Elimination Stage Of Elimination: Semi Final 11/8

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has confirmed the club want to sign Arsenal star Cesc Fabregas.

Arsenal lured Fabregas away from Barcelona as a teenager after he came through the club's youth ranks.

The 21-year-old has gone on to establish himself as one of the best young midfielders in Europe and a host of clubs have been credited with an interest in his services.

Fabregas has been continually linked with a return to his native Spain with both Barcelona and Real Madrid keen on signing him.

Laporta is a big admirer of the schemer and believes the player would fit perfectly into their style of play.

"I would like very much to see Cesc wearing the shirt of Barcelona," Laporta told Marca.

"He was formed in our academy and it's certain he would adapt to our system of play.

"We already have the best midfield in the world but you can always get better."

Arsenal, who are set to welcome Fabregas back from injury for this weekend's clash with Manchester City, would be loath to sell the Spaniard as he remains a key part of Arsene Wenger's plans.