Chris_R

Probably. Their plan now is looking like it's to shut down BeIN legitimately. The last couple of years will already have ruined them financially with loads spent on rights and not enough back due to the Saudi economic blockade, so now if the Saudis go all-in on getting sports rights for the region then BeIN won't be able to compete and will likely be done for. To be honest they were probably fairly fucked anyway for the reasons I mention. They've not brought in enough revenue in the region to pay for their last round of rights anyway so there's no way that they would be offering the same kind of deals to the PL etc next time anyway. Their threats of "we won't be bidding to this scale next time mind!" were probably predicated on the knowledge that they couldn't bid to this scale next time anyway. Poor Richard Keys nailed his colours well and truly to the Bein mast, maybe if he'd kept his mouth shut he might have been able to pitch for a job once the Saudis took over? I don't think they'll give him the time of day now. Hope he gets a job somewhere soon, too much time on his hands wouldn't be a good thing if there's a few girls his daughter's age in the vicinity. Some time off will be good for him, he can get some more tarmaccing done.

Probably. Their plan now is looking like it's to shut down BeIN legitimately. The last couple of years will already have ruined them financially with loads spent on rights and not enough back due to the Saudi economic blockade, so now if the Saudis go all-in on getting sports rights for the region then BeIN won't be able to compete and will likely be done for. To be honest they were probably fairly fucked anyway for the reasons I mention. They've not brought in enough revenue in the region to pay for their last round of rights anyway so there's no way that they would be offering the same kind of deals to the PL etc next time anyway. Their threats of "we won't be bidding to this scale next time mind!" were probably predicated on the knowledge that they couldn't bid to this scale next time anyway.

I’d rather his head comes off his gorilla shoulders tbh. Unfortunately I think if this all goes through, it's quite likely that as part of their "sportswashing", the Saudis will have to tone down on the in-stadium executions.

I know I've been negative on here before about the odds of this happening, and I still REFUSE to get excited until its done out of emotional self-defense, I do see the Saudi crackdown on piracy as a big positive. No way do they do this if they're failing the test, or believe they're failing. They must have at least been led to believe that this will be enough to move things in the right direction for them.

Piracy will destroy the game. All TV deals do is move money from the fans' pockets to the players, clubs and broadcasters. There was football in the 1980s before all that, and if the TV deals all disappeared there'd still be football. Not that they will disappear, of course, because piracy has existed since Sky first launched. You could always get hacked boxes and cards, right back from launch time. Also, I note that he says "I said early in this process - I wish it was any club other than Newcastle not because I don’t like the club" but then completely fails to say WHY he said any club but Newcastle. Might be nice to get an explanation of that?

That's normally Friday. Until then, "imminent / soon" are to be used when describing this.

Getting *slightly* F5-y here today....

... during a PIF board meeting.

I refuse to pay football any attention until this takeover is sorted so I can either start to enjoy football again or sack it off entirely. This match just feels like 2 hours of purgatory whilst you wait to see if you're being moved up or down. Just gonna go for a bike ride instead and check the score when I get in.

We should look on the bright side. If this does go through, at Rafa will be out of contract.

Oh good, less than "weeks" left of this.

Monday-Wednesday: Announcement imminent Thursday: Maybe something soon Friday: Next week will be crucial Repeat

"Something rumbling along" - Perceptive fucker this Bruce, isn't he. Nothing gets past him.

Oh trust me, if we keep Ashley we'll be fucking the PL off alright.

What, even if they're just saying "You can't join our group"? I think we might be confusing the size of the organisation, which is admittedly massive, with the fundamental concept which is it's a members-only club that they say they reserve the right to reject you from.

Even if I live to Vera Lynn's age, which I won't because beer, I've already spent 0.25% of my entire expected lifespan doing nothing more than F5-ing this sodding forum every day. I'm beyond sick now.

You offering?

More crazy. Drive ourselves MORE crazy.

Nah, they just had to do something before Saturday. They were playing a brinkmanship game, hoping that it would be someone else's problem before the match kicked off, but now the deadline has got too close for comfort and they've had to blink.

Probably just had to finally admit defeat that it won't be sorted before Saturday so they can't fob the problem off to the next owners - Which was presumably their plan previously.

Great, so if it passes we might have to wait *another* week whilst the fucking cheque clears.

In short, yes Longer answer here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar_and_state-sponsored_terrorism

Plus Qatar already have a club representing them in Man City who would probably be their main focus, not us. It’s PSG mate, not Man City. City are owned by Abu Dhabi, who are a Saudi ally against Qatar (and Iran) Abu Dhabi is a city. UAE. Ha. Yep, my mistake. Brain not engaged properly. I meant UAE. No you were right first time, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are autonomous Emiratis. UAE is more a country of convenience. To be fair, both descriptions work. Abu Dhabi and Dubai are emirates of the UAE, with their own rulers, and also have capital cities with the same name as the emirate.

How the fuck does a dentist know so much.... He gets updates every day at 2:30....

Well, he wasn't wrong.