junkhead

Mehehe, he's been feeding on BeIN interpretations it seems.

We really need a self-made British billionaire who’ll know what it takes to run a great club. I'd rather Staveley, the Reubens and one of the most powerful nations in the world than another Mike Ashley at this point, thank you

Or that it has failed and PIF have appealed. The PL won't publicly announce any pass or fail, so we could at any point be in the appeals stage. We could be there already.... I think that an initial (public) rejection and a (successful) appeal, based on lack of factual evidence is the most likely possibility now. Also completely agree with your other post re: the obvious link between PIF and MBS / Saudi gov. I'm another one who has shared the same concerns since the moment it become evident Qatar are throwing money to stop this.

It's more likely that what you described happened a month ago, as reported by Guardian at the time. The WTO website states that the report is released to WTO members (I assume this means to the public, as nearly every country is a WTO member) 30 days after being sent to the disputing parties. I think we're at that stage but who knows.. It's interesting that KSA have made public their defence on the dispute on the home page of the government portal. It was indeed published yesterday. If anything, it's the first public act of determination from their side to get the deal done and it indicates that the WTO report will be indeed made public this week. The report will be damning for sure, despite KSA's claims that it's a geopolitical matter of national security, not a trade dispute. Can't see the PL fuckers deciding for another week at least. It's very worrying that the PL have chosen to wait for the official release of this report though. On the other hand, we've seen some evidence of pressure from KSA in the last few days, so I'm slightly more optimistic that they have enough influence to counter Qatar's campaign.

Actually (almost) everything I posted seems to be wrong - The full WTO report WILL be released to the public, 30 days after the two sides receive it, regardless if there are appeals or not :'( This random case is currently locked in the Appeal status-quo described above, but the full report has been released: https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds523_e.htm And simply judging by the Appeal Body's staffing numbers, I doubt the appeal procedure can overturn or produce drastically different findings to the original reports, even if it was working..

Who passed the appeal or gave a verdict, the WTO Court of Arbitration isn’t functioning. We have to check What was the source of that claim again? This is the relevant text from https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/disp1_e.htm "Each appeal is heard by three members of a permanent seven-member Appellate Body set up by the Dispute Settlement Body and broadly representing the range of WTO membership. Members of the Appellate Body have four-year terms. They have to be individuals with recognized standing in the field of law and international trade, not affiliated with any government."

FWIW, there's a possibility any appeals have already passed and what is rumoured to come out next week will be indeed the "final verdict". That would explain the reports after all. The summary on the page of the dispute doesn't list any appeal procedures on the timeline but maybe it's simply not up to date: https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds567_e.htm

The report is complete. So nothing to delay it. Still due on the 14th (I think). Unless it's appealed against by either or both sides Yes but it can’t be appealed until it’s unveiled... surely? Which is what I (thought I) was answering. Correct. Incorrect https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/disp1_e.htm So is it possible this report will not apportion blame, but make recommendations for a resolution ? Just by browsing through random reports, they are pretty direct in their statements. For reference, this one concerns the Qatar blockade in general trade terms and it's (understandably) pretty damning on KSA: https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds528_e.htm (The link under latest document)

The report is complete. So nothing to delay it. Still due on the 14th (I think). Unless it's appealed against by either or both sides Yes but it can’t be appealed until it’s unveiled... surely? Which is what I (thought I) was answering. Correct. Incorrect https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/disp1_e.htm

Hopefully that's the nudge the PL needed to wake them from the Qatari-induced coma.

How can it be "a separate legal entity", when its budget is managed by the Saudi ministry of finance? Hopefully the Football Law guy is correct, of course.

That's what the Telegraph reported and that's what I thought before reading the WTO dispute rules. I'm now of the opinion that at this point it's impossible for the PL to refer officially to the WTO dispute in any way, as it simply has not been concluded. I hope that doesn't mean that we're waiting another 3 months like.

Although I claimed the contrary a few days ago, it is true that the report will NOT be published if either side appeals, as it will be rendered incomplete and potentially false. It's very likely that parts of it will be leaked publicly by the Qatari side though, as it's will undoubtedly rule against KSA. The appeal procedure could last 60-90 days. The WTO site is very informative and functional. https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/disp1_e.htm

Aye, Delaney has been objective and professional in his coverage throughout.. It's just this goddamn NUFC bubble, distorting our perceptions. But thankfully, not yours kisearch - you remain the real winner in this quest for superiority.

Evidently Spurs don't give a fuck about him.. bruv.

She's being questioned now. Fascinating watch Staveley seems understandably a bit nervous

It’s what they’ve always done. That’s actually what I’m looking forward to most if this goes through. The potential lack of drama. I honestly can't see there will be any less drama if it goes through, if anything the media will be gunning for us harder if we start catching up on their beloved teams and the scrutiny is going to go through the roof Maybe our new owners will have a novel way of dealing with bad press. They sure do

Money talks but Qatar have arguably more. Certainly they are capable to offer more to the PL. According to a colleague, you can watch BeIN legally from KSA through their app or other 3rd party apps. Apparently loads of people watch it this way. Last year, I spent few days in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain - they are also part of the blockade - but BeIN's channels (and Al-Jazeera) were widely available in hotels and bars and it certainly wasn't beoutQ signal Just interested, how do Qatar have arguably more financial power when Saudi Arabia's economy appears to be roughly three to four times larger by every measure? Not every measure though.. The universally accepted one for economic efficiency - GDP PPP is twice the amount of Saudi's and ranks them 1st worldwide. KSA definitely have more historical trade significance and potential though but very little foreign expertise in anything apart from oil, construction and warfare. The main difference is that Qatar is designed to be an investor's heaven. It's the most developed, most open to western influence of all Muslim countries. The reforms MBS is attempting to push now were done in Qatar in the 90s. KSA, on the other hand is still a near-complete black box. They simply don't allow any form of foreign independent monitoring on any topic - juridical system, human rights, oil reserves, piracy accusations. In other words - an investor's hell. Wikipedia, I know, but these lists of GPD PPP don't put Qatar anywhere near first, around 50th actually, with Saudi Arabia around 15th. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)#:~:text=GDP%20comparisons%20using%20PPP%20are,which%20may%20distort%20the%20real Surely what is being discussed is the power of the state of Saudi Arabia to purchase something rather than to attract inward investment. Per capita, of course. Qatar is a dwarf territory compared to KSA, after all. GPD PPP per capita is not really a measure of a nation's overall purchasing power. Depending on whether the data is coming from Luxembourg and Lichtenstein are above Qatar in terms of GPD PPP per capita, that doesn't mean that they'd have the ability to compete financially with Qatar, or Saudi Arabia, as a nation. It's not simply a question of purchase power though - even the poorest countries are rich enough to afford the PL rights, if they had to. You're picking on just a tiny bit of what I said. Al-Jazeera (BeIN) is a mastodon media empire in worldwide terms. Saudi Arabia can't create a product to rival this from scratch, if they could - they would have done it a long time ago. It's simply unrealistic, to expect Riyadh to become a media hub, while foreign journalists are not allowed access to the country. I doubt that would be part of the consideration for the sale of broadcasting rights, only how much money a buyer is prepared/able to offer for them. Btw, I'm not trying to be argumentative, I've just been comforting myself with the idea that Saudi Arabia are so wealthy and influential that it's very likely that the issues will be resolved one way or another. I've seen a few people saying that Qatar are now as or more influential and wealthy than Saudi Arabia, but I can't see any real evidence of that. From what I can tell Qatar seem have isolated themselves to some extent within the region and internationally due to the extent of their ties with Iran. Saudi Arabia seems to be far more influential politically and financially, internationally, regionally and particularly in the UK. You're right they don't need to build a media empire to broadcast PL games but reality is that's what they'll be bidding against. The PL are currently partners with the biggest player in the region in terms of worldwide signal coverage and viewing figures and they are capable to match any bid. All I'm saying is that in the PL's eyes that's a key partnership which needs to be protected. To what extent though? That's my other point (granted, libellous and paranoid) - If BeIN's owner is the key man behind the obviously huge-scale corruption surrounding their WC bid, then how likely is that his hands will remain above the table, when they have so much to lose.. and potentially to their greatest rivals who have been stealing their content for years.. I appreciate that's not UK's mentality - I come from a place where corruption is literally everywhere so my views might be a bit skewed and that.. but when it comes to large of amounts of money people tend to be proactive. Whilst I lean towards the theory that it will get sorted and the sale will be completed, I don't think the resolution will involve BeIn Sport being broadcast in Saudi Arabia. I think the Royal Family will want local control of the broadcast into Saudi homes so they can control what advertising materials and affiliated content comes along with the broadcast. Saudi Arabia is a very-conservative country that finds many more liberal principles to be highly offensive so they would likely be intolerant of any extra content that comes along with the BeIn broadcast. So I suspect they will pay for KSA Sport to have it's own broadcast license - possibly paying some compensation to BeIn, via the Premier League as part of the license fee, so Saudi Arabia doesn't directly send money to its enemy. Agree. Like any other country, KSA can bid for the rights and show the PL locally. To do that now, they need to renegotiate with BeIN, cause they own rights for the whole MENA region (with KSA's approval) for another two years, if I'm not mistaken. It's extremely unlikely that Qatar and KSA will renegotiate anything right now - they have zero diplomatic relations. The possibility of KSA outbidding Qatar for the PL rights in the whole region is pie in the sky stuff. They don't have the expertise, nor the finance to do that. Nor the finance We are dealing with kids mind here. Wish I was a kid like. My username and my broken English might be doing me a disservice here but my posts on the topic appear far more researched than most on this thread. Sorry if I offended you but what I try to say is Bein was founded in 2014. All the Qataries did was hired Brits and pay them crazy money. Trust me The Saudis can create something similar quickly. Nee worries But that's not entirely correct - From day one, BeIN had Al-Jazeera's infrastructure, marketing, key-partnerships, satellite coverage and management know-how.. It's true they hired a lot of UK sport expertise (and Keys & Gray), nothing wrong with that but KSA can't do it - https://rsf.org/en/ranking_table I think you underestimate the level of censorship and autocracy in KSA. There's literally zero free speech and zero objective journalism in the country - granted, a sports channel doesn't require those and they can do a lot in short time if they throw money at it, but KSA lacks the very fundamentals. It's obvious they can't rival BeIN's product.

Money talks but Qatar have arguably more. Certainly they are capable to offer more to the PL. According to a colleague, you can watch BeIN legally from KSA through their app or other 3rd party apps. Apparently loads of people watch it this way. Last year, I spent few days in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain - they are also part of the blockade - but BeIN's channels (and Al-Jazeera) were widely available in hotels and bars and it certainly wasn't beoutQ signal Just interested, how do Qatar have arguably more financial power when Saudi Arabia's economy appears to be roughly three to four times larger by every measure? Not every measure though.. The universally accepted one for economic efficiency - GDP PPP is twice the amount of Saudi's and ranks them 1st worldwide. KSA definitely have more historical trade significance and potential though but very little foreign expertise in anything apart from oil, construction and warfare. The main difference is that Qatar is designed to be an investor's heaven. It's the most developed, most open to western influence of all Muslim countries. The reforms MBS is attempting to push now were done in Qatar in the 90s. KSA, on the other hand is still a near-complete black box. They simply don't allow any form of foreign independent monitoring on any topic - juridical system, human rights, oil reserves, piracy accusations. In other words - an investor's hell. Wikipedia, I know, but these lists of GPD PPP don't put Qatar anywhere near first, around 50th actually, with Saudi Arabia around 15th. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)#:~:text=GDP%20comparisons%20using%20PPP%20are,which%20may%20distort%20the%20real Surely what is being discussed is the power of the state of Saudi Arabia to purchase something rather than to attract inward investment. Per capita, of course. Qatar is a dwarf territory compared to KSA, after all. GPD PPP per capita is not really a measure of a nation's overall purchasing power. Depending on whether the data is coming from Luxembourg and Lichtenstein are above Qatar in terms of GPD PPP per capita, that doesn't mean that they'd have the ability to compete financially with Qatar, or Saudi Arabia, as a nation. It's not simply a question of purchase power though - even the poorest countries are rich enough to afford the PL rights, if they had to. You're picking on just a tiny bit of what I said. Al-Jazeera (BeIN) is a mastodon media empire in worldwide terms. Saudi Arabia can't create a product to rival this from scratch, if they could - they would have done it a long time ago. It's simply unrealistic, to expect Riyadh to become a media hub, while foreign journalists are not allowed access to the country.

Money talks but Qatar have arguably more. Certainly they are capable to offer more to the PL. According to a colleague, you can watch BeIN legally from KSA through their app or other 3rd party apps. Apparently loads of people watch it this way. Last year, I spent few days in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain - they are also part of the blockade - but BeIN's channels (and Al-Jazeera) were widely available in hotels and bars and it certainly wasn't beoutQ signal Just interested, how do Qatar have arguably more financial power when Saudi Arabia's economy appears to be roughly three to four times larger by every measure? Not every measure though.. The universally accepted one for economic efficiency - GDP PPP is twice the amount of Saudi's and ranks them 1st worldwide. KSA definitely have more historical trade significance and potential though but very little foreign expertise in anything apart from oil, construction and warfare. The main difference is that Qatar is designed to be an investor's heaven. It's the most developed, most open to western influence of all Muslim countries. The reforms MBS is attempting to push now were done in Qatar in the 90s. KSA, on the other hand is still a near-complete black box. They simply don't allow any form of foreign independent monitoring on any topic - juridical system, human rights, oil reserves, piracy accusations. In other words - an investor's hell. Wikipedia, I know, but these lists of GPD PPP don't put Qatar anywhere near first, around 50th actually, with Saudi Arabia around 15th. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)#:~:text=GDP%20comparisons%20using%20PPP%20are,which%20may%20distort%20the%20real Surely what is being discussed is the power of the state of Saudi Arabia to purchase something rather than to attract inward investment. Per capita, of course. Qatar is a dwarf territory compared to KSA, after all.

Whilst I lean towards the theory that it will get sorted and the sale will be completed, I don't think the resolution will involve BeIn Sport being broadcast in Saudi Arabia. I think the Royal Family will want local control of the broadcast into Saudi homes so they can control what advertising materials and affiliated content comes along with the broadcast. Saudi Arabia is a very-conservative country that finds many more liberal principles to be highly offensive so they would likely be intolerant of any extra content that comes along with the BeIn broadcast. So I suspect they will pay for KSA Sport to have it's own broadcast license - possibly paying some compensation to BeIn, via the Premier League as part of the license fee, so Saudi Arabia doesn't directly send money to its enemy. Agree. Like any other country, KSA can bid for the rights and show the PL locally. To do that now, they need to renegotiate with BeIN, cause they own rights for the whole MENA region (with KSA's approval) for another two years, if I'm not mistaken. It's extremely unlikely that Qatar and KSA will renegotiate anything right now - they have zero diplomatic relations. The possibility of KSA outbidding Qatar for the PL rights in the whole region is pie in the sky stuff. They don't have the expertise, nor the finance to do that. Nor the finance We are dealing with kids mind here. Wish I was a kid like. My username and my broken English might be doing me a disservice here but my posts on the topic appear far more researched than most on this thread.

Money talks but Qatar have arguably more. Certainly they are capable to offer more to the PL. According to a colleague, you can watch BeIN legally from KSA through their app or other 3rd party apps. Apparently loads of people watch it this way. Last year, I spent few days in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain - they are also part of the blockade - but BeIN's channels (and Al-Jazeera) were widely available in hotels and bars and it certainly wasn't beoutQ signal Just interested, how do Qatar have arguably more financial power when Saudi Arabia's economy appears to be roughly three to four times larger by every measure? Not every measure though.. The universally accepted one for economic efficiency - GDP PPP is twice the amount of Saudi's and ranks them 1st worldwide. KSA definitely have more historical trade significance and potential though but very little foreign expertise in anything apart from oil, construction and warfare. The main difference is that Qatar is designed to be an investor's heaven. It's the most developed, most open to western influence of all Muslim countries. The reforms MBS is attempting to push now were done in Qatar in the 90s. KSA, on the other hand is still a near-complete black box. They simply don't allow any form of foreign independent monitoring on any topic - juridical system, human rights, oil reserves, piracy accusations. In other words - an investor's hell.

Aye, that's a stretch A quick flick through Saudi channels shows that the quality of their TV productions is like something from early 70s. Couple this with the strict regulations on visual appearance and content. They need a huge media reform and billions in investment, on top of the licensing fees just to match what BeIN can offer the PL now. If they were able to that and rival Al-Jazeera, they would've done it a long time ago. If anybody is stealing Qatar's PL rights for the whole region it'll probably be Dubai, with KSA's blessing of course.

Whilst I lean towards the theory that it will get sorted and the sale will be completed, I don't think the resolution will involve BeIn Sport being broadcast in Saudi Arabia. I think the Royal Family will want local control of the broadcast into Saudi homes so they can control what advertising materials and affiliated content comes along with the broadcast. Saudi Arabia is a very-conservative country that finds many more liberal principles to be highly offensive so they would likely be intolerant of any extra content that comes along with the BeIn broadcast. So I suspect they will pay for KSA Sport to have it's own broadcast license - possibly paying some compensation to BeIn, via the Premier League as part of the license fee, so Saudi Arabia doesn't directly send money to its enemy. Agree. Like any other country, KSA can bid for the rights and show the PL locally. To do that now, they need to renegotiate with BeIN, cause they own rights for the whole MENA region (with KSA's approval) for another two years, if I'm not mistaken. It's extremely unlikely that Qatar and KSA will renegotiate anything right now - they have zero diplomatic relations. The possibility of KSA outbidding Qatar for the PL rights in the whole region is pie in the sky stuff. They don't have the expertise, nor the finance to do that.

Money talks but Qatar have arguably more. Certainly they are capable to offer more to the PL. According to a colleague, you can watch BeIN legally from KSA through their app or other 3rd party apps. Apparently loads of people watch it this way. Last year, I spent few days in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain - they are also part of the blockade - but BeIN's channels (and Al-Jazeera) were widely available in hotels and bars and it certainly wasn't beoutQ signal