FEATURE OIL AND SPORT: FOR MANCHESTER City's new owners, football is just one small part of a multi-billion-dollar charm offensive.

The Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment are thought to have paid €257.8 million for a 90 per cent stake in the club. The group are made up of members of the ruling family, which has an estimated personal wealth in the region of $26 billion, based on its ownership of much of the country's oil and gas reserves.

It's telling that their first act was to invest €40 million in the superficial glitz of Brazilian winger Robinho. In this way they are applying the same "Build it and they will come" principle to football that has transformed large tracts of the Persian Gulf into the most jaw-droppingly ostentatious new cities to be found anywhere in the world.

Oil has become the most potent element in today's sport marketplace, everywhere you look its influence can be seen. It is oil, via Roman Abramovich's ownership of large tracts of Siberia, that has propelled Chelsea to the upper reaches of European football and it is oil money that Man City fans hope will do the same for their club.

Russia's new-found riches helped the country secure the 2014 Winter Olympics, the IOC's heads turned by the promises of President Putin, who pledged $14 billion, raised from the country's natural resources, to turn the Black Sea summer resort of Socchi into a winter-sports destination.

But it is the Gulf states such as Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Dubai that are using sport to help improve the region's image, drive tourism and reduce its economic dependency on oil and natural gas. In this way the Man City story is part of a bigger picture.

Currently the Gulf states are enjoying the fruits of a second oil boom, the price of which is only now coming down since reaching a historic high of $147 per barrel earlier this year. To put the price of Robinho into context, when oil rises by a dollar, Abu Dhabi nets around $500 million a day.

This year the country hosted its first Formula One grand prix, facilitated by the government's purchase of a five per cent stake in Ferrari. The race took place on an island in the shadow of a new Ferrari theme park. But in their desire to make Abu Dhabi "a global sports capital", they are playing catch-up with their neighbours in the Gulf.

The state-owned Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which has a fund of $50 billion to divest, is also eyeing sports' great properties. The QIA has paid to stage, from 2008-10, the end-of-season women's tennis championship. The country's capital Doha, held the 2006 Asian Games, the world's second largest multi-sport event, and will stage football's Asia Cup in 2011. "We hope people will come to Qatar and see a different Arab world than they perceive it to be," said Hasan Ali bin Ali, chairman of the Doha 2016 Games bid committee.

The centrepiece of Qatar's sports strategy is the astonishing multi-sport facility called the Aspire Zone. This is a huge site that houses a large indoor arena, air-conditioned stables and a host of state-of-the-art facilities that allowed 10 of the sports of the Asian Games to be staged under one roof simultaneously.

A feature of the coverage was an indoor blimp that flew inside the main arena to film the action. An underground football stadium is being built before the Asian Cup. But it is neighbouring Dubai which has pioneered the global sport strategy which has shifted power across a host of sports most notably golf, motorsport and horse racing.

Next season, the European Tour's money list will be renamed The Road to Dubai, culminating in a $20 million Dubai World Championship, the most lucrative event in the golfing season.

In 2010, the £1.3 billion Dubai Maydan racecourse will open, no doubt with expectations of local winners provided by Godolphin, the Dubai-backed international racing group. After a relatively poor 2007, Godolphin has spent $100 million on bloodstock, including over $10 million for Playful Act, a world record for a broodmare. It would not be a surprise to see Dubai money follow that of Abu Dhabi in to the Premier League, with Liverpool the obvious target. The club's American owners have previously rejected an $800 million offer from the Dubai International Holdings investment group. Given the rivalry between Arab states they may yet come back with an enhanced package.

The paradox at the centre of all this spending is that participation in sport across the Arab states is low and sport is something to watch not do.