The issues here are economic to a large extent. Football/soccer is very, very big business, and the rich petroleum-based economies of the Middle East have major investments in football/soccer teams - owning several. This includes major money invested in Real Madrid. I don’t know the details, but the Christian cross that had been part of the Real Madrid crest was apparently removed on this basis:
Football/soccer teams used to be entirely ‘club teams’, owned by private investors and fans. Now several are owned by countries. Paris St. Germaine (PSG) is one of them, owned essentially by Qatar. They paid a transfer fee of ~$250,000,000 for one player in 2016, totally changing the financial structure of world football/soccer.
Sorry for the incorrect link. The ESPN link doesn’t work (brings to wrong article), but the following has the story: