The PL can convince itself of what it wants but the Prince implicitly owns Newcastle and unless there's govt. opposition...which there wasn't for Newcastle, the same would be true for other clubs. PIF is just a proxy.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
The 2022-2023 Football Thread
- Thread starter Scepticalscribe
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
By law he doesn’t although I agree it’s semantics. That still doesn’t change the fact you can’t own two clubs. The PL have made clear a state can’t own a club so he personally can’t buy one and PIF already own one.
Let's put it this way, a way that would satisfy the inconvenient figleaf of required legality while yet somehow not quite circumventing it in reality, should one seek a state buyer for Manchester United: It would not surprise me if an ally of KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) - let us imagine, perhaps, a bidder, or a buyer, from, - for example - the UAE, made an offer, a compelling offer, the sort of compelling offer that would compel serious consideration..
Man Utd have a bigger brand than Everton ever will; states looking for a sports washing project are going to be attracted to the biggest brand they can get. They are trying to purchase authenticity and a large rabid fan base who will do the work of defending their project for them.
My bad.
Mea culpa.
UAE and Saudi Arabia are (politically and culturally) close, however, which means that potential buyers of Manchester United may need to come from other sources......perhaps, Qatar, (who already have PSG), or, dare one mention it, their ally, with whom they share a massive gas field, Iran, who nevertheless, appear to be currently embroiled in their own domestic woes at the moment.
I’m not sure Iran would even have the option they’re sanctioned to the hilt.
Agreed.
I was idly ruminating.....
However, they are rather close to Qatar (and not just geographically, and shared gas interests).
In any case, an expression of interest of some sort from Qatar (re Manchester United) would not surprise me very much.
The World Cup is one thing, and one that I am not (emotionally, or otherwise) all that much invested in, but I must say that I miss the Premier League.
A dark and dreary November week-end is not quite the same without one's dose of Premier League football.
A dark and dreary November week-end is not quite the same without one's dose of Premier League football.
Agree on that. If England continue to the later rounds, I'll get more invested I'm sure. But at least when I do want to watch a game (or part of a game), its all free to watch.
Maybe I should have written "fix" rather than "dose" (of week-end Premier League football).
However, this World Cup campaign, well, I just nod in the direction of games, check in, and that's it; the political socio-cultural stuff is what is of interest, and, candidly, my real interest in such matters lies in - and is consumed by - what is happening in the the eastern regions of of Europe.
But, on a November week-end, a dark, dreary, dismal, Saturday, (or, in recent years, Sundays, as well, Monday games miss the point of the week-end's football activities), when I wake, I want to know how Arsenal will do and then, I want to how they did; this is an emotional engagemnet (not entirely rational, I will concede).
World Cup in November (and December)........nah. Not for me.
lol... I've seen worse but I do agree, even though I'm for POR, he wasn't making himself bigger, he was protecting himself during a slide.
I love CR7 but come on dude you didn't get that goal. lol.
I could not agree more. Nearly as stupid as awarding the goal to the bloke that felt it go past his head!
I'm sure you are a little more invested in the PL this year than the last few!
Well, yes, I won't deny a certain frisson of........pleasure fused with a degree of nail-biting, gnawing, tension this year.
However, Saturdays (and, to a lesser extent, Sundays) in November just aren't the same without the Premier League.
Meanwhile, I devoutly hope that none of our potential heroes - er, players - on international duty receive an unwanted, unwelcome (or worse, a serious) injury while playing at the World Cup.
Last edited:
Same for the four we have out there. It’s a concern with our small squad and results pre WC.
Juventus: Entire soccer club board of directors resigns over charges of false accounting | CNN
The entire board of directors of Juventus, including the club’s President Andrea Agnelli and CEO Maurizio Arrivabene, has resigned over charges of false accounting, a statement from the Italian soccer club said Monday.
Juventus: Entire soccer club board of directors resigns over charges of false accounting | CNN
The entire board of directors of Juventus, including the club’s President Andrea Agnelli and CEO Maurizio Arrivabene, has resigned over charges of false accounting, a statement from the Italian soccer club said Monday.amp.cnn.com
Juventus fan here.
I think this goes well beyond just football, Italian media have been reporting for years about a feud inside the owners' family, basically two branches fighting over control and inheritance.
Juventus has been mismanaged for a few years now, the investment made with Cristiano Ronaldo didn't pay off, yes, we did manage to sell a truckload of merchandise thanks to him and he performed as well as usual, but we didn't win the Champions' League because the team was poor, and Champions' League money was the only way that investment would have paid off, Higuain turned out to be a poor investment too, but they also kept on high wages players well beyond their prime (Bonucci, Alex Sandro, Cuadrado), they're paying high wages to players whose performances have never been up to that kind of money (Rabiot, Rugani, Dybala until last season), last summer we made some questionable, expensive signings (Pogba, Di Maria, Paredes), questionable because of those players' ages and physical shape, Vlahovic, who was more expensive than Haaland, still hasn't showed he's worth 13 million Euros (gross) per season and a 70 million Euros price tag, and let's add to that Allegri, signed to a 4-year deal worth 9 million Euros (net) per year.
Yes, COVID did make the team lose one season's worth of ticket sales, but this team is now 254 million Euros in debt, and this is inexcusable when you've basically had a completely monopoly on the Serie A for the last 10 years.
So, it's mostly a matter of poor technical and financial decisions; long story short, we bought, kept and paid too much money to a lot of players whose performances were, mostly, never worth that kind of money.
Now there's this investigation going on, but I'm neither a lawyer nor an accountant, so I don't really know what's going on, to me it's always "innocent until proven guilty".
But I think this situation shows another thing, that football clubs all over Europe refused to evolve and are still completely relying on their owners' deep pockets, basically every major European club is neck-deep in debt because they're not properly managed and are not run as companies, once the owners stop pouring money into those bottomless pits known as football clubs the machine breaks down, the only clubs that are managing to stay out of debt are those owned by countries (City, PSG), the well managed ones (Bayern), and those whose owners keep covering the debts (Chelsea).
Exor, Juventus' parent company, did the same thing for years, over the last three years they recapitalized the club for 554 million Euros, effectively erasing all debts, but it wasn't enough; Juventus' owners are probably among the richest owners in European football, if not the richest - excluding, of course, countries - they can easily erase the debt yet another time, but they just don't want to anymore, maybe it's because the head of the family, John Elkann, is not as fond about football as his predecessors, maybe because of their family feud, or just because he wants a better managed asset.
I still think that without stricter rules, or maybe just by enforcing the existing ones, football is going to implode someday, this kind of spending is not sustainable in the long run, unless clubs have the backing of countries or corporations with no regard for money whatsoever.
One good thing coming out of this mess is the Juventus Next Gen project, it's a youth team playing in the third division, Juventus has been paying much more attention to scouting over the last few years and it's starting to bear fruit, we're seeing potentially good players coming out of this system: Fagioli, Miretti, Rovella, Luca Pellegrini, Matias Soulé, Samuel Iling-Junior, according to some reports Juventus may make a move for a young GK, Marco Carnesecchi, who, according to some, can be the next big thing, even Buffon vouched for him.
I think this goes well beyond just football, Italian media have been reporting for years about a feud inside the owners' family, basically two branches fighting over control and inheritance.
Juventus has been mismanaged for a few years now, the investment made with Cristiano Ronaldo didn't pay off, yes, we did manage to sell a truckload of merchandise thanks to him and he performed as well as usual, but we didn't win the Champions' League because the team was poor, and Champions' League money was the only way that investment would have paid off, Higuain turned out to be a poor investment too, but they also kept on high wages players well beyond their prime (Bonucci, Alex Sandro, Cuadrado), they're paying high wages to players whose performances have never been up to that kind of money (Rabiot, Rugani, Dybala until last season), last summer we made some questionable, expensive signings (Pogba, Di Maria, Paredes), questionable because of those players' ages and physical shape, Vlahovic, who was more expensive than Haaland, still hasn't showed he's worth 13 million Euros (gross) per season and a 70 million Euros price tag, and let's add to that Allegri, signed to a 4-year deal worth 9 million Euros (net) per year.
Yes, COVID did make the team lose one season's worth of ticket sales, but this team is now 254 million Euros in debt, and this is inexcusable when you've basically had a completely monopoly on the Serie A for the last 10 years.
So, it's mostly a matter of poor technical and financial decisions; long story short, we bought, kept and paid too much money to a lot of players whose performances were, mostly, never worth that kind of money.
Now there's this investigation going on, but I'm neither a lawyer nor an accountant, so I don't really know what's going on, to me it's always "innocent until proven guilty".
But I think this situation shows another thing, that football clubs all over Europe refused to evolve and are still completely relying on their owners' deep pockets, basically every major European club is neck-deep in debt because they're not properly managed and are not run as companies, once the owners stop pouring money into those bottomless pits known as football clubs the machine breaks down, the only clubs that are managing to stay out of debt are those owned by countries (City, PSG), the well managed ones (Bayern), and those whose owners keep covering the debts (Chelsea).
Exor, Juventus' parent company, did the same thing for years, over the last three years they recapitalized the club for 554 million Euros, effectively erasing all debts, but it wasn't enough; Juventus' owners are probably among the richest owners in European football, if not the richest - excluding, of course, countries - they can easily erase the debt yet another time, but they just don't want to anymore, maybe it's because the head of the family, John Elkann, is not as fond about football as his predecessors, maybe because of their family feud, or just because he wants a better managed asset.
I still think that without stricter rules, or maybe just by enforcing the existing ones, football is going to implode someday, this kind of spending is not sustainable in the long run, unless clubs have the backing of countries or corporations with no regard for money whatsoever.
One good thing coming out of this mess is the Juventus Next Gen project, it's a youth team playing in the third division, Juventus has been paying much more attention to scouting over the last few years and it's starting to bear fruit, we're seeing potentially good players coming out of this system: Fagioli, Miretti, Rovella, Luca Pellegrini, Matias Soulé, Samuel Iling-Junior, according to some reports Juventus may make a move for a young GK, Marco Carnesecchi, who, according to some, can be the next big thing, even Buffon vouched for him.
Last edited:
Unsurprising that Cronaldo tried to claim the goal; he's all about himself, not the team. He'd rather cheat a team-mate of the glory, than be a man and admit he didn't touch it. Sums him up. Also unsurprising that no big European teams want him or his massive ego.
As for Italian football; it's always been mired in corruption and controversy, from Berlusconi and the Agnelli family, to Lazio's fascism.
The situation with club debt isn't as straightforward as a simple list can explain. For eg; Liverpool are in a far healthier position than Man U, financially, as in their case, the'debt' doesn't mean they are in dire straits. A large part of Man U's debt is servicing some 'loan' or other the Glazer's took out to buy the club; just financial shenanigans. Rich people making themselves richer, shock.
As for Italian football; it's always been mired in corruption and controversy, from Berlusconi and the Agnelli family, to Lazio's fascism.
The situation with club debt isn't as straightforward as a simple list can explain. For eg; Liverpool are in a far healthier position than Man U, financially, as in their case, the'debt' doesn't mean they are in dire straits. A large part of Man U's debt is servicing some 'loan' or other the Glazer's took out to buy the club; just financial shenanigans. Rich people making themselves richer, shock.
I believe CR7 still thinks he's The Man, he's The One that can single handedly overturn a match or a season, sometimes he can, but not as a starter anymore, it's all within him, he's in his late 30s, a great athlete of course, physically a beast, but I don't think he can be at the center of a project by a top team, he can be a substitute and enter the match late and save the day, he's still better than many players, but I understand it can be hard to accept he's not in his prime anymore, it's just life and he's human.
But, you know, I'm still a football fan, a part of me would still love to see Cristiano Ronaldo back with Juventus, possibly earning way less than 30 million Euros per year, for the fan in me, I mean, he's Cristiano Ronaldo!
When talking about Italian football I'd stay away from reports coming from Italy, most newspapers, TV channels and journalists are heavily biased, they're basically hardcore supporters posing as journalists, and will tell only one side of the story, many times conjecturing. Right now you can read reports that basically already see most of Juventus' board of directors in jail, the team relegated, penalized and dismantled, all of this based on pretty much nothing; then, you read reports coming from Turin, and the family's newspapers, talking about a new board of directors made up of more competent people, telling you that John Elkann is good at choosing people to restructure and strengthen companies, and without talking about the squad itself. Who should we believe?
As far as I understand the situation, some Juventus managers are under investigation for white-collar crimes, that were the consequence of a bad balance sheet which, in turn, was the direct consequence of years of poor, and expensive, choices. Regarding some choices, it was apparent from the start that they were poor, like hiring Allegri and paying him 9 million € per year, others were judged badly only by a few, like Higuain and Ronaldo, but most people, including me, were orgasming when we bought them.
As for club debts, I know not every debt is bad, but if you're running a club into debt because you're spending a fortune chasing after players, whose transfer fees and salaries keep going up year after year, along with bonuses paid to their agents (Jorge Mendes got 12 million Euros from Juventus when CR7 transferred from Real Madrid, Mino Raiola got 27 million Euros from Manchester United when they bought Pogba, he also got around 20/25 million Euros from PSG when Donnarumma signed for them), because there are State-sponsored teams with endless resources, willing to spend no matter what to secure a player, then I think we have a problem.
And I say "we" as fans, supporters, because those clubs, in the end, are just companies, and there's only so much debt that a company can sustain, and if those companies have financial problems then the clubs we support will have a problem.
Thank you for the explanation, I haven’t followed Serie A in almost 20 years so I was unaware of all the issues.
Forza Milan!