Roman Abramovich

[Kid Icarus]

52 minutes ago, leffe186 said:

It just sounded peculiarly misguided in that he conflated the “apologists for the Remain campaign” with those who dismembered the “socially just civil life in Britain”. It’s the first time I’m seeing these quotes, but that struck me as at best extremely disingenuous.

 

It’s hard because, y’know, it’s John Pilger. I read a fair bit of his stuff as a kid because I’m English/Australian with hippy liberal parents who were very politically engaged. I don’t know the full context of his Brexit quotes but the juxtaposition of all that stuff on his Wiki reads painfully like a contrarian apologist for Russia and Russian interests. I don’t think that’s his angle (his angle is usually anti-UK/US/Aussie foreign policy, and rightly so) but you could understandably infer that.

 

I don't think there's anything inaccurate about his Brexit comments tbh. Leave wouldn't have been able to sell the lie of the EU being responsible for an underfunded NHS if we had one that hadn't been dismembered, for example.

 

I haven't read Pilger's stuff extensively but his meat and drink seems to be "see! This is what happens when we..." which I think is fair enough considering the complete lack of any analysis of our own actions elsewhere in popular discourse. I think he gives the impression that he thinks our actions are the be-all-and-end-all though which is where I think he either gets it wrong or gets misinterpreted.

 

 

Edited March 12, 2022 by Kid Icarus

[Groundhog63]

40 minutes ago, Whitley mag said:

Agree with the UAE argument why the fuck has Dan Roan not mentioned Man City aswell this morning in another sly dig at us. 
 

Labour spout a load of shit, if the looney left like Corbyn had got in we might have problems. But no chance, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are our biggest trading partners in Middle East.

 

 

 

This weapon thinks......

100k dead from an unnecessary "austerity" ideology

100K dead from reckless covid miss-management

Tens of £billions stolen from the public coffers into the hands of tory donors and family

Absolute closing down of free-speech and protest

NHS on the home run of privatisation

Potential WW3.......er............could've been worse

 

 

Exactly why we're so fucked in one post. UK RIP

[macphisto]

6 minutes ago, Manxst said:

But that is immaterial as the business isn’t allowed to trade as normal. 

I misunderstood your question, I thought we were talking about if the club was allowed to trade as normal.

 

Yes, sanctions will be in place for sometime. I suspect until Putin is replaced. Though I could see access to SWIFT and restoring normal Russian energy supplies fairly soon as we are not on a position  to do without Russian oil and gas for any length of time. Or rather it would be too costly.

[Groundhog63]

6 minutes ago, macphisto said:

I misunderstood your question, I thought we were talking about if the club was allowed to trade as normal.

 

Yes, sanctions will be in place for sometime. I suspect until Putin is replaced. Though I could see access to SWIFT and restoring normal Russian energy supplies fairly soon as we are not on a position  to do without Russian oil and gas for any length of time. Or rather it would be too costly.

SWIFT doesn't include the energy supply. We, the west, are still trading with Russia. iirc obvs

 

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/is-war-ukraine-impacting-russian-gas-supplies-europe-2022-03-07/

[macphisto]

3 minutes ago, Groundhog63 said:

SWIFT doesn't include the energy supply. We, the west, are still trading with Russia. iirc obvs

 

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/is-war-ukraine-impacting-russian-gas-supplies-europe-2022-03-07/

Makes it easier to trade though, particularly for energy supplies. I thought that was the reason some European countries were reluctant to cut off SWIFT. I might be wrong but that was my impression.

[Whitley mag]

37 minutes ago, Groundhog63 said:

This weapon thinks......

100k dead from an unnecessary "austerity" ideology

100K dead from reckless covid miss-management

Tens of £billions stolen from the public coffers into the hands of tory donors and family

Absolute closing down of free-speech and protest

NHS on the home run of privatisation

Potential WW3.......er............could've been worse

 

 

Exactly why we're so fucked in one post. UK RIP

I’d take the current lot over Corbyn and Diane Abbott any day pal.

 

If you think Labour would have dealt with a once in a lifetime pandemic any better you’re fucking deluded.

 

 

Edited March 12, 2022 by Whitley mag

[gbandit]

Fuck me, new lows for the football forum 

[Smal]

Not really. Whitley mag has always been a fucking halfwit.

 

 

Edited March 12, 2022 by Smal

[Abacus]

Then here's an even bigger low.

 

It's not as simple as saying that Abramovich is just Putin's friend, which is one of the arguments I've heard. Russia is run by gangsters with Putin at the top  - no-one gets to earn or keep huge fortunes there without support from the very top, and there will be quid pro quos to that.

 

RA has been involved in the Russian parliament and was also instrumental in getting Putin into power. He clings to that power by dishing out wealth to his favourites, the oligarchs who then go around the world doing his good works, due to them having a veneer of separation from the state.

 

Even though her quote was butchered, this is where Staveley was dead wrong in saying what she did about Abramovich. It's not just someone RA knows. Any and every Russian oligarch is basically one of Putin's puppets. Maybe she didn't understand that, so all the better for a "no comment" in that case.

 

But to come back around to the comparison with us and PIF. PIF's wealth is not brought about from state sponsored theft in the first place. The separation from the Saudi state may seem wafer thin, so there is that parallel for sure. Meaning, any sanctions against Saudi and PIF could always happen and that could affect PIF's multiple investments, including us.

 

But there are no sanctions on KSA or its investments, and there's no pressing new reason to impose them just because of the conflict in Ukraine. I.e., it's always a risk, but it's a pretty remote one. I doubt any political party would sanction them seriously either, unless things took quite a turn in the West's relations with Saudi. 

 

All that said, whilst I'd love a bit of fun - buying players and competing at the top of the league - if sanctions were to happen for good reasons, I'd obviously accept it. 

The main thing is that we're rid of Ashley forever, and it was only ever the unrealistic Saudi cash that could have prised the club out of his cold dead grasp in the first place. So we're free regardless.

 

On footballing matters, I hope we stuff Chelsea tomorrow and drink all their remaining beer.

[Whitley mag]

4 minutes ago, Smal said:

Not really. Whitley mag has always been a fucking halfwit.

 

 

 

[54]

 

[Joey Linton]

42 minutes ago, 54 said:

 

I'm sorry but

[Guest HTT II]

43 minutes ago, 54 said:

 

Disqualified him for reasons that existed when they allowed him to buy the club in the first place…

 

Now this is sportswashing…

[Joey Linton]

https://www.manutd.com/en/news/detail/manchester-united-agree-strategic-partnership-in-saudi-arabia

 

 

[Stifler]

Top 6:

You can’t let the Saudi’s buy Newcastle, they are bad.

 

6 months later…….

 

Premier League:

Chelsea owner is cut from being a director of the club because he’s bad. 

[UncleBingo]

1 hour ago, Whitley mag said:

I’d take the current lot over Corbyn and Diane Abbott any day pal.

 

If you think Labour would have dealt with a once in a lifetime pandemic any better you’re fucking deluded.

 

 

 

Short of building a giant fuck off pyre in the middle of the country and chucking tens of thousands of OAPs and billions of pounds of taxpayers money on for about a month solid, it's hard to think how they could have made a worse job in the initial months of the pandemic in all honesty.

 

The catalogue of errors was beyond woeful......but Corbyn eh!

[madras]

2 hours ago, macphisto said:

If you allow the club to trade as normal then you may as well not bother with sanctions.

 

If the club trades as normal then two things happen.

 

1) Value of the club more or less remains the same.

 

2) The business will continue to accrue profits. OK, maybe not in Chelsea's case but in theory it could turn in a profit by selling players.

 

Once sanctions are lifted then Ambramovich would have been mildly inconvenienced at most. He wouldn't materially be any worse off.

 

 

 

Keep his sanctions in place till Chelsea are sold. I see he's also been disqualified as a director, wouldn't his shares/holdings normally be sold in this situation ?

[nbthree3]

 

[Dokko]

Chelsea gonna be our feeder club? 

[Jackie Broon]

7 minutes ago, madras said:

Keep his sanctions in place till Chelsea are sold. I see he's also been disqualified as a director, wouldn't his shares/holdings normally be sold in this situation ?

 

The rules require that he is removed as a director (i.e. the club is sold) within 28 days, if not the club can be suspended from the league.

 

Btw, the reason for his disqualification will be this, because of the sanctions, rather than directly due to his links to Putin:

 

A Person shall be disqualified from acting as a Director and no Club shall be permitted to have any Person acting as a Director of that Club if:

F.1.6. he/she becomes prohibited by law from being a director...

 

 

[Dokko]

1 minute ago, Jackie Broon said:

 

The rules require that he is removed as a director (i.e. the club is sold) within 28 days, if not the club can be suspended from the league.

 

Btw, the reason for his disqualification will be this, because of the sanctions, rather than directly due to his links to Putin:

 

A Person shall be disqualified from acting as a Director and no Club shall be permitted to have any Person acting as a Director of that Club if:

F.1.6. he/she becomes prohibited by law from being a director...

 

 

 

Yup. Had the gov not done anything then he's still be free to do as he pleases but it seems thryve been after him for a while. He knew it was coming with his statement.

 

Meanwhile ksa are welcomed by the UK gov and the Royal family. Opens the door for nufc to leapfrog all the London clubs in the next couple of years. 

[leffe186]

2 hours ago, Kid Icarus said:

 

I don't think there's anything inaccurate about his Brexit comments tbh. Leave wouldn't have been able to sell the lie of the EU being responsible for an underfunded NHS if we had one that hadn't been dismembered, for example.

 

 

 

That’s absolutely true, but the Leavers selling the NHS lie were essentially the people who’d been working to sell it off - bankers, grifters etc. Pilger is talking about millions refusing to be bullied by Remainers. I stand to be corrected as I wasn’t in the Uk at the time but didn’t a large amount of the media (Sun, Mail, etc) support Brexit?

 

Those millions who were standing against the Remainer bullies and frustrated by austerity etc were essentially turkeys voting for Xmas.

[macphisto]

1 hour ago, madras said:

Keep his sanctions in place till Chelsea are sold. I see he's also been disqualified as a director, wouldn't his shares/holdings normally be sold in this situation ?

I don't know enough about the implications of being disqualified by the Premier League. Is Ambramovich allowed to reject offers he deems to low? Would it eventually go to something similar to a silent auction where the highest bidder wins?

 

If we think of Ashley, he was "trying" to sell Newcastle for the last 10 years.

[madras]

16 minutes ago, macphisto said:

I don't know enough about the implications of being disqualified by the Premier League. Is Ambramovich allowed to reject offers he deems to low? Would it eventually go to something similar to a silent auction where the highest bidder wins?

 

If we think of Ashley, he was "trying" to sell Newcastle for the last 10 years.

I would guess some sort of administrator would be brought in.

[Kid Icarus]

51 minutes ago, leffe186 said:

That’s absolutely true, but the Leavers selling the NHS lie were essentially the people who’d been working to sell it off - bankers, grifters etc. Pilger is talking about millions refusing to be bullied by Remainers. I stand to be corrected as I wasn’t in the Uk at the time but didn’t a large amount of the media (Sun, Mail, etc) support Brexit?

 

Those millions who were standing against the Remainer bullies and frustrated by austerity etc were essentially turkeys voting for Xmas.

Ah yeah of course it was, but because it wasn't just them and they were all at it, they could spin a believable story that way from a completely hypocritical standpoint.

 

The remain campaign both unofficially and officially was a joke and did use bullying tactics along with talking down to the electorate - something that we were all guilty of at the time I think and which just made things worse.

 

I supported remaining and think the country voted the wrong way, but it doesn't mean that a lot of the things said by Pilger and others about the EU and the remain campaign being elitist, neoliberal, and so on aren't true. I think many remainers would say the same thing about how bad the official and unofficial remain campaigns were.