Saudi Sportswashing Machine

[Baleforce]

brick like this makes me laugh, they don't deserve to be at the top, they did once about 20 plus years ago when they were brilliant

Amanda Staveley has told Sky Sports News the long-term ambition for Saudi Sportswashing Machine is to top the Premier League after the club's takeover was completed on Thursday.

"Saudi Sportswashing Machine deserves to be top of the Premier League. We want to get there. It will take time, but we will get there," says Staveley, the chief executive of PCP Capital Partners who is now a director on the Saudi Sportswashing Machine board.

It’s hilarious, they’ve spent most of their history in the second tier.

 

[Danishfurniturelover]

brick like this makes me laugh, they don't deserve to be at the top, they did once about 20 plus years ago when they were brilliant

Amanda Staveley has told Sky Sports News the long-term ambition for Saudi Sportswashing Machine is to top the Premier League after the club's takeover was completed on Thursday.

"Saudi Sportswashing Machine deserves to be top of the Premier League. We want to get there. It will take time, but we will get there," says Staveley, the chief executive of PCP Capital Partners who is now a director on the Saudi Sportswashing Machine board.

They have not done anything to deserve it.

 

[parklane1]

You seem almost giddy with excitement at the Saudi Sportswashing Machine takeover Dubai?

Not really he is just using it to have his weekly rant about Levy.

 

[FolkestoneSpur]

This has actually mad me sick to the stomach. I know it's hardly news that football has sold it's soul but this lot I feel really are a darker devil.
As someone mentioned earlier this is a genocidal country ffs. The Premier League are barely even trying to cover the fact that this is a Saudi Government takeover.
But the bit that makes me even more sick is the knowledge that I won't give up football when at the very least I should boycott the prem.
I'm probably being over dramatic but this has created a cognitive dissonance that is deeply unpleasant.

 

[DubaiSpur]

Why happy for them?

They'll win things, experience great moments and emotional days they'll tell their grandkids about. St. James' Park will likely be completed to its full size of 60,000+, and they'll get investment into the city itself, including new homes and potentially a hospital - what's not to like from their perspective? After being owned by Ashley, they deserve some happiness.

They' re owned by vicious medieval murderers, that's true. But the Premier League owners are already basically a rogue's gallery of morally bankrupt folks (our own tax exile currency speculator is assuredly not morally pure). And they have precisely zero ability to change that, and the UK government is perfectly happy to do business with their owners. For someone who supports Saudi Sportswashing Machine or just lives in the city, this is likely to be a net positive move.

 

[DubaiSpur]

Not really he is just using it to have his weekly rant about Levy.

I genuinely look forward to the chats we'll have in ten years, mate, when we'll still have won fudge all, Saudi Sportswashing Machine will be lifting the Prem and we will be on Year 30 of this grinding, soulless drought under the wastes of space that own us.

I look forward to it because nothing will have changed in either your relentless cheerleading for them or my furious anger against them - so it will be a calming reminder that some things are eternal regardless of the passage of time.

 

[parklane1]

I genuinely look forward to the chats we'll have in ten years, mate, when we'll still have won fudge all, Saudi Sportswashing Machine will be lifting the Prem and we will be on Year 30 of this grinding, soulless drought under the wastes of space that own us.

I look forward to it because nothing will have changed in either your relentless cheerleading for them or my furious anger against them - so it will be a calming reminder that some things are eternal regardless of the passage of time.

At my age mate i am not sure i have got another 10 years in me , and even IF i did i have not got your crystal ball to see that far ahead.

 

[Jordinho]

This could actually be the last drop. I've given up on all football except Tottenham and I still watch the euros/world cup tournaments (what else is there to watch in the summer anyway?). It has actually made me consider whether my season ticket is worth having. Maybe it's time to find another hobby. The money I spend traveling to London could buy me some decent holidays in great locations I've never been before. I'll wait and see, but if this means another club with interest free billion pound loans and fake sponsors then I'm not sure I have any interest in it any longer

 

[DubaiSpur]

At my age mate i am not sure i have got another 10 years in me , and even IF i did i have not got your crystal ball to see that far ahead.

Well, crystal ball or not mate, my hope is that you've got ten years and many more after that, and that you'll still be here in good health and happiness come 2031 - you're as young as you want to be.

Mind, not sure GG or Spurs are all that helpful to a long and happy life - but it's what we signed up for.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

This could actually be the last drop. I've given up on all football except Tottenham and I still watch the euros/world cup tournaments (what else is there to watch in the summer anyway?). It has actually made me consider whether my season ticket is worth having. Maybe it's time to find another hobby. The money I spend traveling to London could buy me some decent holidays in great locations I've never been before. I'll wait and see, but if this means another club with interest free billion pound loans and fake sponsors then I'm not sure I have any interest in it any longer

I’m going that way now
I may as well sack off the season ticket and pick games on dodgy TV links
Can spend more time with the kids and not worry about a club that genuinely doenst give a brick about anyone in a sport that will be as competitive as F1

 

[SpurMeUp]

Launch a petition. And come up with a chant about using Oil money to buy the league. City and Chelsea were bad enough using their dirty petrodollars via Russia and Middle East. Rather than get ontop of financial doping from these clubs, the PL has added another.

I hope there is a bit of reaction. For all the Trusts and fans anti-Levy energy, there seems to be very little invested in trying to address the warped nature of the PL. It is a bigger barrier than ENIC, yet few seem to wish to push this agenda...

 

[DubaiSpur]

Launch a petition. And come up with a chant about using Oil money to buy the league. City and Chelsea were bad enough using their dirty petrodollars via Russia and Middle East. Rather than get ontop of financial doping from these clubs, the PL has added another.

I hope there is a bit of reaction. For all the Trusts and fans anti-Levy energy, there seems to be very little invested in trying to address the warped nature of the PL. It is a bigger barrier than ENIC, yet few seem to wish to push this agenda...

Because the warped nature of the league as a whole is alright with English fans in general.

Right from the start, Germany has had a 50+1 model that means their clubs are owned by their fans, and consequently this sort of buyout flimflam doesn't happen in the Bundesliga - and the few clubs that get around the rules are viewed as pariahs, Hoffenheim and Leipzig mainly. The tradeoff is, their league has recently been dominated by a Bayern side which has mastered the art of raiding opponents for their players and managers just as they become powerful enough to challenge. But they seem to accept that as a lesser evil in comparison to Sheikhs coming in for their clubs. Similar fan ownership models are common across Spain (with their socios) and France.

In all my discussions over the years, English fans find the concept of fan ownership strange at best, and English football has historically been owner-funded and operated from its inception in the Victorian era.

The nature of the game is different, and is what allows sheikhs to come in and buy up clubs - the only difference between their operations and those of the rich Englishmen who owned winning clubs in the past is that they're foreign and on another level financially.

So, the essential heart of the modern English game is fine with the fans - so the real vehicle of progress for any team is to wish for good owners.

And our owners are just utterly useless in that regard. Hence, anti-ENIC anger is growing, and I am bloody glad to see it.

Funnily enough, I've always been fairly open about what I want - in an ideal world, I want us owned by the fans, and if that were the case I wouldn't ever complain about living within our means because it would be a genuinely moral ownership that put our club first and, hopefully, the club's people first. But we are owned by billionaire tax-dodger who bought us for a song and has his henchman run the club at no cost to him - and his henchman has historically had utter contempt for the ordinary folks who support and work for the club. So there is nothing moral in our ownership - and hence, all they are is a deadweight investment company sans any investment whatsoever, who do nothing but hold us back. And removing them is the only way we can dream, imo.

 

[Legohamster]

Because the warped nature of the league as a whole is alright with English fans in general.

Right from the start, Germany has had a 50+1 model that means their clubs are owned by their fans, and consequently this sort of buyout flimflam doesn't happen in the Bundesliga - and the few clubs that get around the rules are viewed as pariahs, Hoffenheim and Leipzig mainly. The tradeoff is, their league has recently been dominated by a Bayern side which has mastered the art of raiding opponents for their players and managers just as they become powerful enough to challenge. But they seem to accept that as a lesser evil in comparison to Sheikhs coming in for their clubs. Similar fan ownership models are common across Spain (with their socios) and France.

In all my discussions over the years, English fans find the concept of fan ownership strange at best, and English football has historically been owner-funded and operated from its inception in the Victorian era.

The nature of the game is different, and is what allows sheikhs to come in and buy up clubs - the only difference between their operations and those of the rich Englishmen who owned winning clubs in the past is that they're foreign and on another level financially.

So, the essential heart of the modern English game is fine with the fans - so the real vehicle of progress for any team is to wish for good owners.

And our owners are just utterly useless in that regard. Hence, anti-ENIC anger is growing, and I am bloody glad to see it.

Funnily enough, I've always been fairly open about what I want - in an ideal world, I want us owned by the fans, and if that were the case I wouldn't ever complain about living within our means because it would be a genuinely moral ownership that put our club first and, hopefully, the club's people first. But we are owned by billionaire tax-dodger who bought us for a song and has his henchman run the club at no cost to him - and his henchman has historically had utter contempt for the ordinary folks who support and work for the club. So there is nothing moral in our ownership - and hence, all they are is a deadweight investment company sans any investment whatsoever, who do nothing but hold us back. And removing them is the only way we can dream, imo.

I don’t think it is growing tbh, but I agree with your view we won’t win anything with ENIC

 

[glasgowspur]

I know they aren't starting from as low a base as city but this isn't going to change anything overnight.
It will be at least three seasons before there is any real on field progress.
A lot can happen in three years.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Because the warped nature of the league as a whole is alright with English fans in general.

Right from the start, Germany has had a 50+1 model that means their clubs are owned by their fans, and consequently this sort of buyout flimflam doesn't happen in the Bundesliga - and the few clubs that get around the rules are viewed as pariahs, Hoffenheim and Leipzig mainly. The tradeoff is, their league has recently been dominated by a Bayern side which has mastered the art of raiding opponents for their players and managers just as they become powerful enough to challenge. But they seem to accept that as a lesser evil in comparison to Sheikhs coming in for their clubs. Similar fan ownership models are common across Spain (with their socios) and France.

In all my discussions over the years, English fans find the concept of fan ownership strange at best, and English football has historically been owner-funded and operated from its inception in the Victorian era.

The nature of the game is different, and is what allows sheikhs to come in and buy up clubs - the only difference between their operations and those of the rich Englishmen who owned winning clubs in the past is that they're foreign and on another level financially.

So, the essential heart of the modern English game is fine with the fans - so the real vehicle of progress for any team is to wish for good owners.

And our owners are just utterly useless in that regard. Hence, anti-ENIC anger is growing, and I am bloody glad to see it.

Funnily enough, I've always been fairly open about what I want - in an ideal world, I want us owned by the fans, and if that were the case I wouldn't ever complain about living within our means because it would be a genuinely moral ownership that put our club first and, hopefully, the club's people first. But we are owned by billionaire tax-dodger who bought us for a song and has his henchman run the club at no cost to him - and his henchman has historically had utter contempt for the ordinary folks who support and work for the club. So there is nothing moral in our ownership - and hence, all they are is a deadweight investment company sans any investment whatsoever, who do nothing but hold us back. And removing them is the only way we can dream, imo.

I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t want some element of fan ownership
Everyone I go with would welcome it
What they wouldn’t want though is the idiots of the trust representing fans
But beyond that most fans would welcome the influence

what I don’t get is the comments is that this is about more money for the premier league. How?
What this does is create a two horse race and it will be between two sides without the global status of others. That doesn’t bring in more money and makes the league less attractive. It becomes F1 basically without the crashes

 

[DubaiSpur]

I don’t think it is growing tbh, but I agree with your view we won’t win anything with ENIC

Fair enough, but I disagree - as I mentioned a while ago, even the most happy-clapper folks I know are starting to wonder if we'll get anywhere under this lot, and I feel like there are a lot more questions asked online these days that are responded to with 'okay, but we can't get rid of them, so there's no point'.

That's progress, imo. It takes time, as with all endeavours, but I'm hopeful that the page is turning on views of ENIC and their 20 grinding years.

 

[Gazza Dazzla]

I know they aren't starting from as low a base as city but this isn't going to change anything overnight.
It will be at least three seasons before there is any real on field progress.
A lot can happen in three years.

When City were first used as a vehicle to launder money it was the Thai guy and I believe they were in the Prem at the time, lower level finishes. Actually very similar to Saudi Sportswashing Machine now.

Think the change will be fairly immediate personally. Bruce won’t last much longer and they’ll have a new manager by Jan window and will start churning the money. Predict a mid table finish this season then more money will be splaffed at it, they’ll be in Europe by the end of next season I reckon?

 

[DubaiSpur]

I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t want some element of fan ownership
Everyone I go with would welcome it
What they wouldn’t want though is the idiots of the trust representing fans
But beyond that most fans would welcome the influence

I dunno mate, there's a lot of people even on this board that disagree vehemently. It isn't just about the Trust - as I've argued in the past, a fan-owned club can be run just as well or better than we are now, since what happens in Germany is that the fan-elected board just hires a chairman and sometimes a DoF to manage the club, and leaves them to it. Some of their chairmen are leagues ahead of the likes of Levy - Hans-Joachim Watzke et al. So, it's not like we'd be run by the Trust.

Yet, most of the time the folks I speak to are just quizzical about the prospect that they can have stakes in the club they love. I dunno why. One of my hopes is that the fan-led review of the game at least normalizes discussion of golden shares and other ownership models to begin wresting control away from the crooks and morally bankrupt billionaires who run the clubs now.

what I don’t get is the comments is that this is about more money for the premier league. How?
What this does is create a two horse race and it will be between two sides without the global status of others. That doesn’t bring in more money and makes the league less attractive. It becomes F1 basically without the crashes

I assume they're thinking about TV rights. Saudi-funded Saudi Sportswashing Machine buys Mbappe, wins the league, City competes by buying more good players, Chelsea does the same, other clubs are forced to follow just to stay competitive, and the league hoovers up talent from the rest of Europe and becomes so dominant even Madrid, Barca et al can't compete. Which drives TV rights - many millions of folks would be happy to watch a league with all the best players in it even if it's only ever won by, say, Saudi Sportswashing Machine and City.

 

[glasgowspur]

When City were first used as a vehicle to launder money it was the Thai guy and I believe they were in the Prem at the time, lower level finishes. Actually very similar to Saudi Sportswashing Machine now.

Think the change will be fairly immediate personally. Bruce won’t last much longer and they’ll have a new manager by Jan window and will start churning the money. Predict a mid table finish this season then more money will be splaffed at it, they’ll be in Europe by the end of next season I reckon?

They've been stable under Ashley.
I know that sounds dumb as they yo yoed in bit and with all the protests, but the club fundamentals have been in a better condition than where city were.
Also think the and the depth of competition in the league is deeper.
There's lots of bargains to be picked up, but i think it will be three years at best before they are challenging for top four and as long as a 6 or 7 before they are serious title contenders.

 

[SteveAWOL]

They still have crap players and an average manager. No excuse for not beating them.

Suppose that another such reverse might help NES identify who he needs to cull, much like Pochettino did 5 summers ago… who needs Wijnaldum when you’ve got Sissoko!