{"id":210805,"date":"2026-07-17T10:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T10:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/210805\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T10:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T10:44:07","slug":"arthur-blank-pro-israel-owner-of-eng-arg-world-cup-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/210805\/","title":{"rendered":"Arthur Blank: pro-Israel owner of Eng-Arg World Cup stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n England and Argentina faced off on Wednesday at a stadium in Atlanta owned by pro-Israeli billionaire Arthur Blank [Getty]<\/p>\n

England\u2019s World Cup semi\u2011final against Argentina<\/a> in Atlanta on Wednesday night was played under the roof of one of the tournament\u2019s flagship arenas \u2013 a stadium owned by a US billionaire whose fortune and philanthropy are deeply entangled with Israel and Zionist causes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mercedes\u2011Benz Stadium, temporarily rebranded “Atlanta Stadium” for FIFA\u2019s commercial rules, belongs to Arthur Blank, the Jewish American co\u2011founder of Home Depot and long\u2011time owner of the NFL\u2019s Atlanta Falcons. The venue hosted eight matches at this World Cup<\/a>, including Wednesday\u2019s semi\u2011final, several group games and earlier knockout ties.<\/p>\n

Blank, 83, bought the Falcons in 2002 and has since turned Atlanta into one of the United States\u2019 most prominent sports hubs. His flagship project is Mercedes\u2011Benz Stadium, the retractable\u2011roof arena that opened in 2017 in downtown Atlanta at a cost of around $1.6 billion, funded through a mix of private investment and public support.<\/p>\n

The ground now serves as home to both the Falcons and Major League Soccer side Atlanta United, and has been marketed by organisers as a symbol of the US\u2019s ability to host the expanded 48\u2011team World Cup.<\/p>\n

For many viewers in the Arab world, however, the spectacle on the pitch sits atop a political story about money, power and Israel<\/a> that is hard to ignore.<\/p>\n

Through The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Blank has for years been a major donor to Jewish communal bodies in the US and organisations directly tied to Israel.<\/p>\n

In 2016 alone, Blank\u2019s foundation sent at least $75,000 to the Jewish Agency for Israel\u2019s North American Council, the fundraising arm of one of Israel\u2019s key national institutions and later stepped up direct support for Israeli bodies after the 7 October 2023 attacks \u2013 announcing $750,000 in emergency grants for Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba and the Israeli volunteer emergency\u2011response network United Hatzalah.<\/p>\n

Blank\u2019s philanthropy sits alongside a family narrative of “steadfast” Zionism. In a published essay for the Jewish National Fund, one of his sons recalls being inspired by his father\u2019s passion for helping Israel and writes that “Zionism in my family has always been steadfast.”<\/p>\n

The same piece notes that two of Blank\u2019s grandsons later migrated to Israel and served as “lone soldiers” in the Israeli military \u2013 one in the Nahal 932 Battalion as a sharpshooter and the other in the Paratroopers 202 Brigade \u2013 before returning to the Boston area after completing their tours. Pro\u2011Israel organisations have promoted the story as an example of diaspora Jewish families strengthening ties with the Israeli military.<\/p>\n

Inside Mercedes\u2011Benz Stadium, World Cup matches have already become a stage for the politics of flags and solidarity.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the tournament, the venue hosted Argentina\u2019s dramatic 3\u20132 comeback win over Egypt,<\/a> a match that turned into a flashpoint online after footage emerged of Argentine fans waving an Israeli flag as they celebrated. The images provoked anger from Egyptian supporters already furious at what they saw as a rigged match.<\/p>\n

For many viewers in the region, Israeli symbols waving in a US stadium while Gaza remains under bombardment were read as a provocation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England and Argentina faced off on Wednesday at a stadium in Atlanta owned by pro-Israeli billionaire Arthur Blank…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[3095,4194,3077,37,39715,51,292],"class_list":["post-210805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-argentina","tag-england","tag-israel","tag-pro-israel","tag-united-states","tag-us-affairs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116934912394475570","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}