Why a Winter Training Camp in Dubai Is a Bad Idea for Borussia Dortmund

All could be sunshine and roses around Borussia Dortmund at the moment: Thanks to a late winner from Shinji Kagawa, the club are only five points behind Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich and—more importantly—no fewer than nine ahead of third place, currently held by Borussia Monchengladbach. 

Dortmund are enjoying their second-best season ever to this point, as the club's website pointed out: "BVB already have 35 points on the board after 15 games—the only better points haul in the club's history came in 2010/11, when they had 40 points at the same stage of the season."

Having won 21-of-26 matches across all competitions despite a coaching change in the summer, Dortmund have impressed on the field. A peculiar decision off the field, however, has caused head-shaking and more among the club's faithful supporters. 

Two weeks ago, the club announced that the winter training camp will be held in Dubai in January 2016, after Dortmund travelled to Spain in recent years (link in German).

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The official reasoning behind the move was twofold: For one, the club deemed the facilities and climatic conditions in the Gulf to be optimal for the month of January.

Secondly, sporting director Michael Zorc said, via ESPN FC's Stephan Uersfeld: "After several years of spending parts of January in Spain, we also wanted to provide new stimuli for the team."

On the surface, and only considering footballing aspects of a training camp, one can't really argue with the decision. The facilities will undoubtedly prove to be state of the art. Hamburger SV spent their winter training camp last year in the same complex BVB will use (link in German). 

Football aside, however, Dortmund's decision to travel to the United Arab Emirates is a sign that the club that used to pride itself on doing things differently has become just another football club: chasing money, abandoning principle.

Human Rights Watch wrote in its 2015 report on the UAE: 

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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) continued in 2014 to arbitrarily detain individuals it perceives as posing a threat to national security, and its security forces continued to face allegations that they torture detainees in pretrial detention. UAE courts invoked repressive laws to prosecute government critics, and a new counterterrorism law poses a further threat to government critics and rights activists. Migrant construction workers on one of the country’s most high-profile projects continued to face serious exploitation, and female domestic workers were still excluded from regulations that apply to workers in other sectors.

"

Dortmund, of course, anticipated criticism of the move and included the following in their announcement of the decision, via Uersfeld: "In spite of lucrative offers, BVB rejected several requests for friendlies from countries in which the human rights situation does not align with Borussia Dortmund's standards or an open discussion about human rights is not possible."

The irony of that statement wasn't lost on the club's supporters. Fan magazine Schwatzgelb voiced its indignation (link in German), as did many fans on social media. 

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Just days before the announcement of the winter training camp, Dortmund held their annual general and shareholders' meetings. Club president Reinhard Rauball and CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke praised the club's social responsibility, with Rauball saying, per the club's website: "We stand up for the rule of law and freedom." 

Watzke, meanwhile, thanked former head coach Jurgen Klopp "for continuing the fight of the classic working man's club against the sheikhs," per Bild (via Insidefutbol). Klopp's Liverpool, of course, had beaten Manchester City—owned by a UAE private equity company—the day before the general meeting.

Dortmund's decision, however, shows that the "classic working man's club" is nothing more than a facade. Watzke often speaks about his wish of Dortmund becoming a beacon of German football: "Ideally, Dortmund should be German football's second torch-bearer. It's not only about sporting success, but also charisma," Deutsche Welle cited him from an interview with Sky Sports News Germany.

With a training camp in Dubai, Dortmund are not bearing the torch. They are following the pack.

Lars Pollmann is a featured columnist writing on Borussia Dortmund. He also writes for Yellowwallpod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.