Morning all.
I thought I’d jump on the Chelsea bandwagon. Hearing that the government had thrown sanctions at Roman Abramovich yesterday was music to my ears. From the day that man walked into that club and threw bad money after bad on players, football in England was ruined. The way he treats his managers has been little short of disgraceful, not that I feel sorry for any single one of them as they knew what they were signing up to. As does every single player who has walked in and out of the club. What club signs a player for £10m, sells him for £25 odd million and then buys him again a few years later for £100m, knowing he’ll have no resale value?
No ticket sales.
No club shop sales.
No players in or out.
No sponsorship on their kit.
No sale of Chelsea FC unless Abramovich agrees not to take a penny from any prospective buyer. Even then, Abramovich has to get consent from the government.
This morning, their are headlines which suggest Nike are thinking seriously about pulling the plug on their kit deal which if true, is huge. Financially crippling too, so much so The Mail report that Chelsea could go bust within weeks and they might not be able to complete the season. A 9 point deduction should they go bust has a nice ring to it..
Do I feel sorry for the fans? You can bet your bottom dollar that I don’t.
But you know what I think, it shouldn’t have taken a war for blokes like him to own a football club. Forget the political side because I don’t want to mix politics with football but for ethical reasons alone, football clubs should not be run in a way Chelsea, Man City and now Newcastle Utd most likely, are or will be run. Men and/or women who don’t give two hoots about another human life in the country they live in, should not be owning a British sports club.
Will the FA/PL change their “fit and proper” set of rules in future? I doubt it but they jolly well should.
Back to Arsenal, who in comparison to Chelsea, is owned by a saint. Mikel Arteta has been nominated for PL manager of the month for February, Nicholas Pepe’s goal against Wolves earned him the fans goal of the month award and Thomas Partey was voted our player of the month for the first time since he joined the club. I’m not surprised he’s won it for February but it’s pretty poor that in the 18 months he’s been at Arsenal, he’s not played well enough to have scooped the award before. Partey seems to have finally found a bit of consistency at a good time though because our team needs him at his best. It needs everyone at their best for just a few more months. For 13 more fixtures!
See you in the comments.
And today it’s back on my desk top going to try the i-phone .
no desk top only. giving phone to granddaughter to have a look.
Morning Rico. I agree. If you believe that football in this country is a part of the social fabric then obviously a man who enables a war criminal should have no place within it.
A big problem will arise when a close look is taken at other owners. People who comes from countries who are considered as friends because we sell them arms and/or buy oil etc, from them.
What if China steam into Taiwan? We know that the Saudis, who have ended up with Newcastle aren’t full of peace and love to all. The discrimination that is rife across the Middle East? Should that impact their ownership of clubs?
I would ask whether the footballing authorities who give the nod to the infamous fit and proper persons requirement actually have the backbone to go any further. In fact, who are the people who make these decisions? I have no idea.
Perhaps we are just too far down the money road to change.
Morning Adam, all.
Good question about who is making the decisions re ownership. Perhaps a few brown envelopes has switched pockets over the years.
Glad to hear Potter.
Yes Adam, isn’t rather ironic isn’t it that Sky and BT prattle on about prejudice and equality when players take the knee before a game but seemingly ignore the lack of equality and the prejudice that exists in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, especially when covering Newcastle and Man City games? Nothing is allowed to sully the product it seems, even public executions, murdered journalists and homophobia, never mind our scandalous referees…
Morning Rico
My comment disappeared
Ah, it’s back again, how odd.
Morning Kev, a fickle lot aren’t they. I wonder what the host of the morning football show had to say on the subject of Chelsea, his team apparently.
As I’ve mentioned many times the Chelsea fans are scumbags. Them chanting Abramovich’s name at Norwich & Burnley games just proves the point.
There has been some pathetic journalism in recent days bigging up Abramovich’s achievements. They miss out the parts on money laundering, gangster behaviour and supporting mass murder.
Stamford Bridge is falling down…
Hi Rico.. the Chavs chanting Roman Abramovich over an applause for Ukraine.. what a disgraceful bunch they are! I have zero sympathy..
I’m surprised it has taken this long.. plus they welcomed him with open arms all those years ago knowing his history.. and as Kev says what about City/Barcodes – money speaks volumes!
That was as low as it gets Pete, sums up their fans in one.
Hi Sue. Doesn’t it hit home though how lucky we were to swerve Usmanov. I’m not sure if he’s as bad as Abramovich, but if we sole owned by him now, we’d be going through what Chelsea are.
Well put Rico could not of said it any better my self.
If Chelsea go broke does that mean all there players are then free agents.
This time we have dodged a bullet by Usmanov having nothing to do we our club, but who knows what could happen in the future. Maybe it’s time to say all PL clubs must be 55% owned by some one with a permanent English resident and a clean record.
Not sure how it works Geoff, other than new contracts can’t be given out to players.
I will shed no tears for any club, player, or manager that has benefited from sport-washing of Dirty money.
I do have sympathy for some of the fans as they had no choice over who bought their club. However others have just been attracted to the shiny trophy’s that are stained with corruption. Those fans i have no sympathy for.
It’s terrible that a war where so many innocents will die had to happen for this to be addressed.
But lets not forget that Chelsea are not alone. There are several other clubs in the Premier league and around the world that are used for this purpose and not just by Russians.
The front runners bidding for Chelsea FC are American billionaire Todd Boehly, together with Hansjorg Wyss and another businessman. Earlier this week I read that the two named above were regarded as perfectly acceptable as far as the “fit and proper persons” ruling but the third person involved has not been named so he cannot be cleared as part of the ownership consortium. If the sale eventually goes through it must be on the proviso that the club cannot be sold back to Abramovich or to any other of Putin’s puppets.
Good news Kev about the taxi fare price rise, you’ll soon be able to buy Abramovich’s super yacht. 😉
“It’s terrible that a war where so many innocents will die had to happen for this to be addressed.”
Absolutely agree…
With the standards as applied currently I imagine Josef Stalin would pass with flying colours.
Every Chelsea fan I know is completely and absolutely tone-deaf where Abramovich is concerned. They see him as a kind of Robin Hood who broke the duopoly of Man Utd and Arsenal. The fact that he supplies the raw material for genocide is, to them, an inconvenient irrelevance. They just don’t care.
If the PL were to do a full investigation into the owners of the clubs then may they should also look into the players manager’s and what shonky deals were done with them
Afternoon all
Perhaps the German ownership system is the most satisfactory. The fans have to own 51% of all clubs. The owners can never exceed their 49% limit. It seems to work for them, why not here?
Of Chelsea, I read somewhere that Roman the money man only ever made 2 seasons pay. That is to say, assuming he took ny cash out of the club it would only have been on two occasions. It’s a real mugs game owning a football club. Perhaps we should be grateful that the Russian money has helped to swirl around the football family!!
He was last spotted last night sailing eastwards on his super yacht just south of Sicilly .Heading ‘home’ to Israel and sanctuary! And good shut! One can only hope that he has bought his resting place next to Maxwell! They’ll make a fitting pair of vagabonds!
Sharing stories of robbing the poor to pay the rich🤧
It’s high time this world rid itself of these megalomaniac, super rich, dictatorial mobsters.
Anyway, Sundays game, Arsenal to win 2-1 against the Thailanders! They do at least see to have benign owners who have used their money and energy in supporting all sorts of worthy commmunity causes in their ‘home’ city for the betterment of Leicesters population.
Just as a post script. I wonder what will become of Usmanov’s £600m yacht and also his bijou residence, formerly the home of John Paul Getty, the second largest ‘country house’ in England. (A home for displaced Ukrainians perhaps?) we definitely dodged a big fat Uzbek bullet there!
Enough! Have a good weekend one and all😇
Geoff suggested the same Wavy, in theory, it’s a great idea.
Do I feel sorry for Chelsea fans ? some but not many . The ones that I went to school with in the days that Joe Mears was around yes because like me they had their club and stuck with it .
However the ones that climbed on the gravy train in more recent years no , they knew what they were buying in to and were happy to shout from the rooftops but now that it’s gone belly up . So be it.
I can only echo the earlier comments that it should not have needed an outbreak of war to bring the problem to a head but it should not be missed , when hoping that it is the start of a clear out , that it is the government of the country that has instigated this not the wholly incompetant football authorities.
I suspect the older fans from way back, didn’t want Roman in the first place. Well, until the silverware came rolling in.
Hey Cicero, I didn’t know that we was getting a rise in the metered fare, personally I am quite comfortable with how it is at present, in fact quite a few passengers say on many occasions it’s more expensive these days getting an Uber – music to my ears of course…
5.5% from April 30th and minimum fare up to £3.80 according to yesterday’s Standard Kev.
Chambers scored again.
Pablo Mari is shining at Udinese.
There’s a German striker at St. Gilloise (1st place in the Belgian Championship) who is shining. It looks (?) that it should go to Brighton.
Thanks for that Cicero, I never read the trade publications so I never know if or when we’re getting an increase. My local garage went from £1.56 per litre of diesel on Wednesday, to £1.62 on Thursday to £1.65 yesterday. Today, who knows?
I saw it at £1.81 in London this week.
Prices are creeping up in the supermarkets, our gas and electric is doubling in price in April, it’s all good news.
Important game tonight for us. A United win would be useful but even a draw slows them both down providing that we get the points tomorrow.
I think that Tottenham are more of a threat.
Agreed I would prefer a United win but would settle for a draw at a last resort.
Maybe it’s time to change from taking the knee for black life’s matter to All life’s matter.
Morning Rico and all
Morning Geoff, I think it’s time to stop it altogether
New post up now