Snak

The Financial Times har en glimrende artikel som fint beskriver saudiernes omgang med England.

https://amp.ft.com/content/1855b290-d02c-4f9e-b05b-d67df1ec350e#

Et uddrag:

Anyone surprised that Britain welcomes such shady money hasn´t been paying attention. Just take a walk around Mayfair or Kensington. London today overflows with wealth managers, libel lawyers, estate agents, public relations advisers, luxury-goods sellers, public-school headmasters and art dealers, some of whom make their living servicing rich criminals. These enablers see themselves as neutral, highly skilled professionals who (most of the time, anyway) work within the law. There´s a reason why Roberto Saviano, the Italian expert on the mafia, calls Britain "the most corrupt country in the world".

The rot goes all the way to the top. Just look at the photograph last year of former prime minister David Cameron, sitting in a tent dressed, incongruously, in a suit, on a camping trip with his then business partner Lex Greensill to woo Saudi Arabia´s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Then there´s the more than £20 billion in arms - as calculated by the NGO Campaign Against Arms Trade - sold by Britain to Saudi Arabia since the Saudis began their war in Yemen in 2015. In 2016, Boris Johnson backed the arms sales against opposition from MPs. Of course, other western countries happily sell arms to the Saudis too.

Most of Newcastle´s fans seem equally unbothered by Saudi Arabia´s abuses against women, political prisoners, Yemenis, Khashoggi and others. They are just pleased that MBS might buy them some trophies. The comedian Mark Steel joked: "If Isis had been smart, instead of blowing stuff up, they´d have bought our football clubs. Then most people in the country would praise them as heroes and saviours."

Ikke bare olie, men pengene samlet set - skræmmende den afstand NUFC ligger

Men osse et par eksempler på at penge ikke gør det alene, det har faktisk været Stokes problem i flere sæsoner. Det har mere været reglen at der skulle købes et par 10m£ spillere i hvert vindue - og det skabte kun problemer.

English football´s rich list
1 Newcastle United: Saudi Arabia´s Public Investment Fund - £320bn
2 Manchester City: Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan - £16.06bn
3 Queens Park Rangers: Tony Fernandes/Lakshmi Mittal - £11.315bn
4 Chelsea: Roman Abramovich - £10.585bn
5 Stoke City: The Coates Family - £8.45bn
6 Aston Villa: Nassef Sawiris/Wesley Edens - £7.592bn
7 Wolverhampton Wanderers: Guo Guangchang/Liang Xinjun/Wang Qunbin - £6.6722bn
8 Barnsley: Chien Lee/Paul Conway/Grace Hung/Neerav Parekh/Billy Beane/Cryne family - £6.643bn
9 Arsenal: Stan Kroenke - £5.986bn
10 Fulham: Shahid Khan - £5.767bn
11 Crystal Palace: Steve Parish/Joshua Harris/David Blitzer - £4.161bn
12 Tottenham Hotspur: Joe Lewis/Daniel Levy - £3.577bn
13 Manchester United: The Glazer Family - £3.431bn
14 Leeds United: Andrea Radrizzani/49ers Enterprises - £2.92bn
15 Southampton: Gao Jisheng/Katherina Libherr - £2.92bn
16 Leicester City: The Srivaddhanaprabha family - £2.701bn
17 Everton: Farhad Moshiri/Bill Kenwright - £2.117bn
18 Salford City: Peter Lim/Class of 92 - £2.117bn
19 Liverpool: John W. Henry/Tom Werner - £2.044bn
20 West Bromwich Albion: Guochuan Lai - £2.044bn
21 Bristol City: Stephen Lansdown - £1.898bn
22 Sunderland: Kyril Louis-Dreyfus - £1.46bn
23 Preston North End: Trevor Hemmings CVO - £1.022bn
24 Brighton & Hove Albion: Tony Bloom - £0.949bn
25 Portsmouth: Michael Eisner - £0.73bn
26 Reading: Dai Yongge/Dai Xiu Li - £693.5m
27 Blackburn Rovers: V H Group - £627.8m
28 Cardiff City: Vincent Tan - £547.5m
29 Sheffield Wednesday: Dejphon Chansiri - £419.75m
30 Bristol Rovers: Wael al-Qadi - £401.5m

Kilde: https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/newcastle-owners-rich-list-stoke-6031547

@Tfish, det skuffer mig godt nok, at City er blevet slået af første pladsen på den der liste...

Fed liste!

Jeg håber Newcastle giver den fuld smadder, og henter Haaland og Mbappé i næste vindue! Dernæst skal de bare bygge på og på, indtil hele fodboldverdenen er malet i Newcastles farver!

@Cooligan, gå ind på newcastle tråden, der er en hel brochure af spillere, Newcastle køber til januar og til sommer...

Spændende lille survey tilbage fra februar måned :)

https://twitter.com/Hafez_AlMedlej/status/1232667972923273216/photo/1

En hyggelig ejer i det nordengelske.

https://ekstrabladet.dk/nyheder/politik/tidligere-spionchef-han-er-psykopat/8927995

Ja, utroligt sympatisk ejerskab de har fået sig der.

Føj for fanden!

Nåh men ja ja, jo jo... I må jo forstå, at hAn bRinGeR håB tiL bYEn. Så altså, helt, skurk... øjnene der ser og alt det der

Jeg ved ikke om emnet har været debatteret i tråden tidligere, i så fald beklager jeg.

Der er åbenbart udkommet en bog af en anerkendt graverjournalist, Catherine Belton, med titlen "Putins People". Det interessante med fodboldbriller er, at det i bogen fremgår at Abramovich købte Chelsea på ordre fra Putin med det formål at øge sin og ruslands indflydelse i England og resten af Europa. Det er naturligvis endt i en gigantisk retssag, for den slags kan man naturligvis ikke have siddende på sig:

https://www.reuters.com/world/book-claim-that-abramovich-bought-chelsea-putins-orders-is-defamatory-judge-2021-11-24/