J_Stewart Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 You're talking absolute nonsense as usual, H_B.On the same evening that Brechin release that minterrific statement and the entire ESL manages to implode and explode simultaneously, you simply have to say fair play to H_B for trying to have the most embarrassing performance of all. What a man. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Just now, Binos said: Only in modern football can being part of a diversification strategy and a PR vehicle have turned out to be a good thing For the moment, it's better than the alternative. Obviously the day will come when Man City have served their purpose to the petrochemical plutocrats and they'll be discarded like all the others. I'll never, ever understand why fans are so happy when their club gets bought by billionaires that obviously couldn't care less about them. Even here, how did Hearts fans think it would go with Romanov? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G51 Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Hasn't Roman Abramovich actively avoided entering the UK for three years now? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binos Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 1 minute ago, GordonS said: For the moment, it's better than the alternative. Obviously the day will come when Man City have served their purpose to the petrochemical plutocrats and they'll be discarded like all the others. I'll never, ever understand why fans are so happy when their club gets bought by billionaires that obviously couldn't care less about them. Even here, how did Hearts fans think it would go with Romanov? Discarded / bought by their new Chinese owners 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derry Alli Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 This is bad news for Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HalfCutNinja Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 1 minute ago, GordonS said: I'm not so sure. Reporters with good contacts across Europe are saying some officials see this as an opportunity to counter-attack and reform the game. We'll see, but there is a chance of some good to come from this and there will be people who want to take it. Why does he attend games so much? Why is he heavily involved in their anti-semitism work? Why does he get involved in so much that goes on at the club? If you were going to launder hundreds of millions, wouldn't you find a quieter way of doing it than make yourself one of the most famous people in European sport and have reporters crawling all over your business? Got many slaves on their books, do they? That's also to protect him, that's why I said build a profile. This is what my tutor on Russian studies told us. Abrahmovich made his money after the break-up of the USSR in the wild east economy black market etc then buying up natural resources with bribes to keep Yeltsin in power like all the oligarchs. But nobody knows how he made the money he used to make that money, the only thing we do know is it definitely wasn't legal. So he bought Chelsea to allow him to shift hundreds of millions out of Russia so Putin or Russia could never take it and establish a profile for himself over here so it makes it a lot harder to target him. He may be a football fan too, but that's what its really all about. He's literally a gangster, when people say he's a gangster that's not figuratively, he actually is. Or certainly was anyway. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antony Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 9 hours ago, Rob1885 said: Where on earth have you pulled Sutton and Stockport from? If the Premier League were to lose these 6 teams it either runs with a 14 team league or more likely promotes from within to keep the same structure for the top 4 leagues (ie 6 teams in each division promoted to a higher tier). I just named the top 6 clubs in the English National League which will be the new entrants into the EFL to keep the structure the same. If they did happen to lose 6 of their top clubs that all get crowds of 50,000 plus, they will either shrug their shoulders and get on with it or look at some other more radical ways of compensating. I don't think it will happen, but inviting some Scottish clubs that could potentially attract 25,000 to 60,000 fans and are Championship/Premier League level sized clubs wouldn't seem a dreadful idea to me. It is obviously far fetched but the 6 Nationql League clubs I named only get crowds of a couple of thousand and will likely just hang about League Two. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim McLean's Ghost Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 1 minute ago, Antony said: If the Premier League were to lose these 6 teams it either runs with a 14 team league or more likely promotes from within to keep the same structure for the top 4 leagues (ie 6 teams in each division promoted to a higher tier). I just named the top 6 clubs in the English National League which will be the new entrants into the EFL to keep the structure the same. If they did happen to lose 6 of their top clubs that all get crowds of 50,000 plus, they will either shrug their shoulders and get on with it or look at some other more radical ways of compensating. I don't think it will happen, but inviting some Scottish clubs that could potentially attract 25,000 to 60,000 fans and are Championship/Premier League level sized clubs wouldn't seem a dreadful idea to me. It is obviously far fetched but the 6 Nationql League clubs I named only get crowds of a couple of thousand and will likely just hang about League Two. I think if 6 clubs were kicked out for trying to create a closed shop antithetical to the football pyramid it would be a bit tone death to invite bigger clubs to fill that space in the pyramid rather than promote clubs from the level below. In other words the OF in england is still a pipe dream. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 1 minute ago, HalfCutNinja said: That's also to protect him, that's why I said build a profile. This is what my tutor on Russian studies told us. Abrahmovich made his money after the break-up of the USSR in the wild east economy black market etc then buying up natural resources with bribes to keep Yeltsin in power like all the oligarchs. But nobody knows how he made the money he used to make that money, the only thing we do know is it definitely wasn't legal. So he bought Chelsea to allow him to shift hundreds of millions out of Russia so Putin or Russia could never take it and establish a profile for himself over here so it makes it a lot harder to target him. He may be a football fan too, but that's what its really all about. He's literally a gangster, when people say he's a gangster that's not figuratively, he actually is. Or certainly was anyway. Ah, I don't really think of that as laundering as it's not certain whether it was even illegal at the time, but fair enough. It was the fall of Rome and everyone was at it. Yes, I've no doubt he wanted to get his cash into assets that were beyond the reach of the Russian government. As for being in the UK and having a high profile making him safe from FSB retribution, that was probably true at the time. Now, not so much... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bully Wee Villa Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 17 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said: I haven’t been to Stoke but can confirm it’s a shithole. I have and I concur. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HalfCutNinja Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Just now, GordonS said: Ah, I don't really think of that as laundering as it's not certain whether it was even illegal at the time, but fair enough. It was the fall of Rome and everyone was at it. Yes, I've no doubt he wanted to get his cash into assets that were beyond the reach of the Russian government. As for being in the UK and having a high profile making him safe from FSB retribution, that was probably true at the time. Now, not so much... It didn't help Litvinenko but Abrahmovich would be by far the highest profile person they've targeted outside of Russia so I think he'll be fine. He's having visa trouble now but is also Israeli so he should be okay with that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HTG Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 15 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said: I haven’t been to Stoke but can confirm it’s a shithole. Stoke is never off Homes Under The Hammer which is as good an indicator of a shitehole as I can think of. Woodward should be sentenced to a year in a mid-terrace property in Hanley. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 1 minute ago, HalfCutNinja said: It didn't help Litvinenko but Abrahmovich would be by far the highest profile person they've targeted outside of Russia so I think he'll be fine. He would, but I really don't think it would stop them after the sh*t they've been willing to pull on the streets of the UK in broad daylight. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detournement Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Abramovich has pretty much always done what Putin asked of him. He's not like Berezovsky or Khodorkovsky who tried to do their own thing. Russia has an oligarchy. The USA has an oligarchy. The UK has an oligarchy. Abramovich stole from the Russian people but has never been involved in anything as criminal as the Iraq war unlike many British industrialists and financiers who attract little attention. -1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HalfCutNinja Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 1 minute ago, GordonS said: He would, but I really don't think it would stop them after the sh*t they've been willing to pull on the streets of the UK in broad daylight. Who knows, Russia has been flexing its muscles for quite a while now and being pretty brazen. I would imagine he has serious protection too. He also has been trying to curry favour for a long time in Russia, put a lot of money into Russian football too. Putin scares the life out of all of them with good reason. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotThePars Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Couple of potentially nuclear takes bubbling away along quite nicely atm 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob1885 Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Souness casting doubt over how easy this may be for the clubs to get out of. This maybe isnt finished yet. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludo*1 Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 (edited) Petr Cech celebrating with the fans. Edited April 20, 2021 by Ludo*1 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HalfCutNinja Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Just now, Rob1885 said: Souness casting doubt over how easy this may be for the clubs to get out of. This maybe isnt finished yet. Perez said yesterday the contracts are binding. Could easily end up in court. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G51 Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Blair coming out with this three hours after it all fell apart is very funny to me 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.