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The Tyrants Buying Football

rez9000

Any point?
Feb 8, 2007
11,942
21,098
This is the crux of it to me. This and intentionally seeking advantage at the expense of others misery.
Absolutely. Even on the pettiest level, what they're doing to football is causing others misery. When Guardiola came out and said that Man City had '[raised] the bar' on the points needed to win a title, I was utterly gobsmacked.

It's like fitting a Cosworth engine in a Morris Minor, which your competitors can't afford, and then claiming that you've hit on some kind of innovative technique that sets you apart from your competitors!

I didn't think it was possible to despise him more than I already did, but then he 'raised the bar'.
 

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,354
87,822
Absolutely. Even on the pettiest level, what they're doing to football is causing others misery. When Guardiola came out and said that Man City had '[raised] the bar' on the points needed to win a title, I was utterly gobsmacked.

It's like fitting a Cosworth engine in a Morris Minor, which your competitors can't afford, and then claiming that you've hit on some kind of innovative technique that sets you apart from your competitors!

I didn't think it was possible to despise him more than I already did, but then he 'raised the bar'.
I wouldn't give Pep that much credit tbh. He knows his football, but beyond that he's likely very ignorant.

If you put him in charge of a league 2 side, he wouldn't have the faintest clue how to survive.
 

hellava_tough

Well-Known Member
Apr 21, 2005
9,429
12,382
I honestly think City and their ilk are an text book example of everything that is wrong with football.

Not only the fact that they’re a sports washing sham club, or the fact they’re making a mockery of financial rules, or buying every trophy they can. But also they way they’re spreading there disease around the globe, buying up clubs and renaming them (xyz) City, sticking them in a sky blue kit and using them to essentially launder money into the main operation.

Sadly the genie is already out of the bottle. The FA should have stamped this kind of activity out when Abramovich bought Chelsea. How many dodgy billionaires have come into the game and bankrupted clubs since that was allowed to happen? Two or three at least? Portsmouth, QPR, Blackburn, City (the first time they were bought out by a dodgy guy Thaskin Shinawatra.) Fit and proper test my arse. Seems like you only need a pulse to pass that.

FIFA and UEFA also did nothing in the early days. And they don’t seem inclined to take any meaningful action
now either.

I’d love to see opposition fans start some kind of anti city protest at their games. All wear funeral attire and hold banners decrying the death of football, banners highlighting the atrocities of the oil slavers that own the club, the hypocrisy of the likes of Guardiola.

Like others have said, it just won’t happen, and I doubt the likes of sky, bt or the bbc would rock the boat by reporting too much on it.

The media are complicit in this nonsense too, because very, very, few writers and pundits highlight any of this.

Whenever City play, no one says "Well they've cheated; they're broken the rules, in the financial area of the game".

It's just plaudits and how great they are.
 

absolute bobbins

Am Yisrael Chai
Feb 12, 2013
11,649
25,962
Oh it sure does...

West Ham remain the most likely sellers — despite the owners’ denials — and the Qatar Investment Authority would not be frightened off by a New York investment bank’s £1billion valuation of the London Stadium club.

£1billion?

West Ham?



Maybe they assume the Olympic park is owned by the club
 

rez9000

Any point?
Feb 8, 2007
11,942
21,098
The media are complicit in this nonsense too, because very, very, few writers and pundits highlight any of this.

Whenever City play, no one says "Well they've cheated; they're broken the rules, in the financial area of the game".

It's just plaudits and how great they are.
Spot on. They're totally, totally spineless!

This is the kind of thing the media is supposed to exist for: to be a brake on the untrammelled acquisition of power; to hold the powerful to account.

Some might argue that this is just sport we're talking about, but when it comes to the likes of Man City and PSG and their owners, it's not just about football. There is so much more going on. They are not involved in football for the sake of football. They are involved in football so that they can be seen as patrons of sport in an attempt to burnish their appalling reputations. Anyone with more than a few braincells to rub together can see that. And yet all we get from the sporting press is fawning sycophancy. The only media organisation that I can think of that's actually spoken up is Der Spiegel.

As the article @Gassin's finest posted (thank you again, GF) mentions, detaching the activities of the Emiratis and Qataris from their respective clubs is very difficult to do. There is an intrinsic link. It's not an easy narrative, and so the press can't be bothered. And there are plenty of people who babble 'no politics' to justify that stance.

The supporters who think that the politics of the situation can be avoided, don't seem to recognise that a) simply spouting 'no politics' doesn't remove it from the equation; and b) more importantly, by trying to remove the politics, all they're doing is exacerbating the situation.

By trying to turn a blind eye they enable the likes of the Al-Nahyans and the Qatari Investment Group to continue their acquisition of clubs, emboldened by the fact that no-one's going to challenge them, seemingly least of all the fans who are going have yet another juggernaut ruining the competitiveness of their domestic leagues.

That, in turn, means that they will become bolder in what they do at home, knowing that no-one's going to raise serious opposition.
 

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,354
87,822
The media are complicit in this nonsense too, because very, very, few writers and pundits highlight any of this.

Whenever City play, no one says "Well they've cheated; they're broken the rules, in the financial area of the game".

It's just plaudits and how great they are.
Therein lies the problem. It's not the Press anymore, or the journalists/reporters. Its 'The Media'. Which exists to attract readers/viewers/consumers. Which is owned by the millionaires and power brokers, driving their self interests and agendas.
 

Tucker

Shitehawk
Jul 15, 2013
31,131
146,021
As I said in the premier league thread yesterday, it’s impossible to separate City from the UAE. It’s not just a coincidence that they own Man City, they own it because they want to sportswash their reputation. They clearly aren’t doing it to make money.

It’s an opportunity to show the world their benevolence, and divert news away from the awful things they do at home.

I often hear the argument, that every owner probably has a skeleton or two in the closet. Well the difference is that Man City is the pile of fancy clothes that have been bought to try and hide the skeleton.

The press don’t do nearly enough to highlight the wrong doings that this exercise is trying to hide. I can almost understand the likes of Sky and BT not mentioning it, after all they’re stakeholders here, they want the premier league to be successful and fun. They don’t need politics and blood getting in the way.

The other major outlets barely mention it though. They should be challenging people about the abuses in power and corruption present. I’d love to see City players, coaches and even supporters asked these kind of tough questions more often.
 

CoopsieDeadpool

Well-Known Member
Jun 8, 2012
18,257
70,419
Maybe they assume the Olympic park is owned by the club


Do you believe that's the reason they wrote that? The whole bloody world knows that their stadium was handed to them on a plate, with joke rental rates attached.

If whoever wrote that piece isn't aware of it, or couldn't do a simple google search to validate their info, I guess I know how much credence to give that source.
 

absolute bobbins

Am Yisrael Chai
Feb 12, 2013
11,649
25,962
Do you believe that's the reason they wrote that? The whole bloody world knows that their stadium was handed to them on a plate, with joke rental rates attached.

If whoever wrote that piece isn't aware of it, or couldn't do a simple google search to validate their info, I guess I know how much credence to give that source.
It was a joke.
 

'O Zio

Well-Known Member
Dec 27, 2014
7,405
13,785
If West Ham became the next Uber rich team I'd probably give up on football.

To be honest it would bother me more if we got bought by some Qatar. West Ham are already a plastic husk of what was once a football club, I couldn't give a toss about them and, just like city, even if they won stuff it would mean nothing to me. Winning that way isn't winning. If we turn into the next Man City that's when I'll give up on PL football.
 

nailsy

SC Supporter
Jul 24, 2005
30,536
46,628
To be honest it would bother me more if we got bought by some Qatar. West Ham are already a plastic husk of what was once a football club, I couldn't give a toss about them and, just like city, even if they won stuff it would mean nothing to me. Winning that way isn't winning. If we turn into the next Man City that's when I'll give up on PL football.

I don't know how I'd feel about it if we became the next City. We're so close to being a trophy winning club at the moment and yet it could still go either way. We could fall out of the top four, or we could push on and be real challengers next season. Would getting the money to finally be able to compete financially with City, United, Liverpool, etc really spoil that? Maybe. I'd certainly love it in the short term if we won something, but then I might just start taking more interest in Orient than the money league.
 

'O Zio

Well-Known Member
Dec 27, 2014
7,405
13,785
I don't know how I'd feel about it if we became the next City. We're so close to being a trophy winning club at the moment and yet it could still go either way. We could fall out of the top four, or we could push on and be real challengers next season. Would getting the money to finally be able to compete financially with City, United, Liverpool, etc really spoil that? Maybe. I'd certainly love it in the short term if we won something, but then I might just start taking more interest in Orient than the money league.

Yeah I can understand that. It's just for me anything you win in that way would always be tainted. There's a huge difference between if we won the CL now vs if we won the CL by being taken over by Qatar and just threw money at mercenary players until something stuck. No matter how much we'd pretend it was the same it just wouldn't be. I couldn't get excited by that like I do nowadays.
 

CoopsieDeadpool

Well-Known Member
Jun 8, 2012
18,257
70,419
Yeah I can understand that. It's just for me anything you win in that way would always be tainted. There's a huge difference between if we won the CL now vs if we won the CL by being taken over by Qatar and just threw money at mercenary players until something stuck. No matter how much we'd pretend it was the same it just wouldn't be. I couldn't get excited by that like I do nowadays.


I simply compare it to food.

Which tastes best. Processed, manufactured shit. Or organic, self grown, self produced fresh produce?
 

'O Zio

Well-Known Member
Dec 27, 2014
7,405
13,785
I simply compare it to food.

Which tastes best. Processed, manufactured shit. Or organic, self grown, self produced fresh produce?

Even more than that. It's like processed manufactured shit that's pretending it's organic, self-grown fresh produce and the people eating it are all telling themselves it's organic etc. even though they can all see the microwave ready-meal packet sticking out of the bin.
 

CoopsieDeadpool

Well-Known Member
Jun 8, 2012
18,257
70,419
Even more than that. It's like processed manufactured shit that's pretending it's organic, self-grown fresh produce and the people eating it are all telling themselves it's organic etc. even though they can all see the microwave ready-meal packet sticking out of the bin.



 

aliyid

Well-Known Member
Dec 28, 2004
6,944
19,929
I don't know how I'd feel about it if we became the next City. We're so close to being a trophy winning club at the moment and yet it could still go either way. We could fall out of the top four, or we could push on and be real challengers next season. Would getting the money to finally be able to compete financially with City, United, Liverpool, etc really spoil that? Maybe. I'd certainly love it in the short term if we won something, but then I might just start taking more interest in Orient than the money league.
This is a similar mindset to mine, I have no idea how I’d react but in the same vein Liverpool are competing this year because they’ve broken two transfer records and spent big across the team.

We’re at a competitive disadvantage by not having bags of money and this kind of investment would only put us on an equal footing with City, Utd, Chelsea, etc... it wouldn’t put us in a position of extreme advantage above them only reach parity.

I think the scenario I would hate more is if another team were able to buy success and leapfrog above us I.e. somebody buys a team like Norwich and turns them into the biggest team in the league. That would start to make me think why do we even bother...
 

nailsy

SC Supporter
Jul 24, 2005
30,536
46,628
This is a similar mindset to mine, I have no idea how I’d react but in the same vein Liverpool are competing this year because they’ve broken two transfer records and spent big across the team.

We’re at a competitive disadvantage by not having bags of money and this kind of investment would only put us on an equal footing with City, Utd, Chelsea, etc... it wouldn’t put us in a position of extreme advantage above them only reach parity.

I think the scenario I would hate more is if another team were able to buy success and leapfrog above us I.e. somebody buys a team like Norwich and turns them into the biggest team in the league. That would start to make me think why do we even bother.
..

Totally agree with this, which I why I said I'd give up on football if West Ham became the next money team.
 

Tucker

Shitehawk
Jul 15, 2013
31,131
146,021
This is a similar mindset to mine, I have no idea how I’d react but in the same vein Liverpool are competing this year because they’ve broken two transfer records and spent big across the team.

We’re at a competitive disadvantage by not having bags of money and this kind of investment would only put us on an equal footing with City, Utd, Chelsea, etc... it wouldn’t put us in a position of extreme advantage above them only reach parity.

I think the scenario I would hate more is if another team were able to buy success and leapfrog above us I.e. somebody buys a team like Norwich and turns them into the biggest team in the league. That would start to make me think why do we even bother...

City and their blood soaked owners have already done that. They were a yo yo club before that, and without Sheikh Mansour I’ve no doubt they’d be fighting it out with the likes of Bolton to see who goes out of business.
 
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