It isn't.
Newcastle United now owned by the PIF | PL receives "legally binding assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control NUFC" ;)
- Thread starter Damien
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Oh yeah Prince Salman is probably not gay.
Look up the punishment for homosexuality in KSA
Nah they’ll spend big in January
No picture of his missus I see even though she has a wiki page.
Yep, it's all there under Personal Life.
They have infinite money for attracting players. Initially, that will mean picking up slightly over the hill former greats looking for one last payday (plus a smattering of talented youngsters), but they should be competing at the top of the transfer market within 4-5 years. The stadium and training ground will require significant upgrades of course, but those projects can be completed within 3-4 years.
I'd be absolutely amazed if they weren't challenging for the league by the mid-point of the decade, given the resources they have at their disposal.
Will this breathe new life into the Superleague?
The Elite clubs knew what was coming, next up will be Norwich to be taken over.
The Elite clubs knew what was coming, next up will be Norwich to be taken over.
Well he's not getting any poorer or less vain so who knows?
Don't mind me too much, I'm just glad I don't care about things that bother some people. Plenty of other things I care more about.
haha yes i am aware of that but not sure it applies to everyone
Did you read beyond the headline? It said no cases.
My point is that your example was wrong.
Exactly.
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But there’s still FFP to think about and it’s not as if other clubs aren’t throwing around money themselves. They still have to attract the calibre of players to challenge the top 4 without CL football and that’s a massive hurdle in itself. Plus squads need planning and an ethos needs to built at the club.
Look at the likes of Everton who just throw enormous money around and is doesn’t elevate them to top 4 challenging status.
FFP will be swept aside by Newcastle, just as it has been by City and PSG. Multiple sponsorship deals with Saudi-based companies and their partners will be imminent.
They will first get a high quality director of football as a statement of intent. Then they will get a decent but not elite high press coach and start building out from there. When they reach critical mass of quality they will get an elite high press coach and start challenging. It's pretty much the City textbook
Well many of us are guilty of not knowing the full supply chain history, factory of origin and their working practices for everything we purchase but I am sure there are very few of us who execute journalists and homosexuals, imprison people for protesting, use torture as a punishment and discriminate against women, although to be fair to them it isn't all bad, in June 2021, Saudi Arabia started allowing women to live alone without permission from a male guardian....whoopee
If a country is still dealing with something the West did to them 500 years ago that's on the country, not the West. We were busy cleaning up after a civil war and chopping our Queens' heads off in 1521. The world was a totally different place.
Unless you are French. We had plenty of scraps with them back then.
People are so naive to be referring to FFP as a potential roadblock to stopping the Saudi Arabians finding a way to spend.
Not sure how the new owners are going to feel about female referees............
Wolves put together a very strong squad in the championship
I've really grown to dislike the use of the term 'The West' and if there was a thumbs up emoji available I would insert it here.
Although...I would say that people in certain countries in the so-called West also use the term too casually; perhaps just arrogantly, or to assuage a certain sense of guilt.
The same way they feel about all the women working in the companies they own
Are they going to buy out their shirt sponsor? I can't imagine they'll be too happy holding up a shirt with "Fun88" (a Chinese gambling firm who is their current one) on it.
It'll be an interesting litmus test for how stereotypically fundamentalist the new Saudi ownership really is.
Part of me thinks that they might run the club in a completely secular way. This takeover is, after all, an attempt to sports wash the negativity around the nation's image.
Glad it was Newcastle, as I already despised them. At least I don't have to go hating on a brand new team.
There's secular and there's secular. I doubt they'll sack all the gay employees but I think promoting gambling (especially as their main shirt sponsor) might be a bit much.
As you say, it'll be a decent test.
It's kind of a roadblock. If there wasn't any FFP you'd probably seen City, Chelsea and PSG spending 10times as much. Haaland and Kane would've been signed on the spot for whatever money.
Not 6-months ago, the footballing media, led by Sky Sports, were decrying foreign ownership causing 'grassroots' values and fans to be abandoned.
Not heard a squeak out of them yet about this...
And herein lies my issue. In a sense, I am quite happy for Newcastle fans. I can understand why they are buzzing about this, why wouldn't they be? Previously they had nothing to look forward too, now all of a sudden, it's highly likely that within 4/5 seasons, they will be competing for top domestic and European trophies.
However, how are Sunderland fans feeling right now? Or Middlesbrough fans? Or Derby fans, West Ham fans, Forest fans...
Ultimately, it looks like if you're not already at the top table, your chance of grabbing a seat relies solely on you being bought by a foreign investment fund. Tell me that doesn't take something away from the game as a whole.
Not heard a squeak out of them yet about this...
And herein lies my issue. In a sense, I am quite happy for Newcastle fans. I can understand why they are buzzing about this, why wouldn't they be? Previously they had nothing to look forward too, now all of a sudden, it's highly likely that within 4/5 seasons, they will be competing for top domestic and European trophies.
However, how are Sunderland fans feeling right now? Or Middlesbrough fans? Or Derby fans, West Ham fans, Forest fans...
Ultimately, it looks like if you're not already at the top table, your chance of grabbing a seat relies solely on you being bought by a foreign investment fund. Tell me that doesn't take something away from the game as a whole.
They'll be in the next super League proposal
Five years from now, the established top 4 will be United, City, Chelsea and Newcastle.
Liverpool bought a good crop of players on the cheap a few years ago, but that kind of luck tends not to repeat itself. They don't have the money to do it the regular way so won't be able to maintain their current status. Arsenal and Tottenham won't get another look-in for the foreseeable future. Leicester can say goodbye to their glory years as well.
Liverpool bought a good crop of players on the cheap a few years ago, but that kind of luck tends not to repeat itself. They don't have the money to do it the regular way so won't be able to maintain their current status. Arsenal and Tottenham won't get another look-in for the foreseeable future. Leicester can say goodbye to their glory years as well.
The PL and top end of the Championship is a Superleague in all but name anyway.
The UCL is even worse.
The Premier League pretty much is the Super League now.
Real, Bayern, Juve and PSG will dominate their own domestic leagues for the next decade. But PL will have 4 of its own clubs with just as much money and clout as all of them - in addition to a midtable who could easily go toe-to-toe with anyone in Europe on a good day.
City and PSG were invited to the superleague. If NUFC owners have serious dosh they're willing to spend, then they'd also be invited to it.
But City didn’t have the quality up against them that Newcastle have now. The year Pep agreed to join City they should have finished 5th if we didn’t bottle the West Ham game.
The standard has raised, in part due to City themselves, which means you have to be elite on and off the pitch to compete. It’s not just getting top 4 but going up against the best sides in Europe who look as if they can only get stronger themselves
Why do these sheikhs never buy Spanish clubs? I've always been curious. Does the league there forbid such a scenario?
Not only that the rest of the league and top half of the Championship is effectively a closed shop aswell due to relegation reward money and parachute payment.
The likes of Norwich, Fulham and WBA can just keep going down without any real consequence as their 'reward' money for relegation will trump any dreamer club out of the water and make sure it's not long until they're back. Case in point Barnsley getting play offs against all odds last season but having their manager poached by West Brom as the 'reward' for their efforts. We're only two months in this season and the top 7 are all bar one recent PL clubs.
To put it into context, I read a team has to win the FA Cup for the next 52 years to earn as much out of the competition as SHU did for finishing bottom of the league last season. If that's true that there shows everything that's wrong with football and the fact it's not being scrutinised is even worse.
La Liga have gotten pretty strict on FFP. Plus, La Liga is not as marketable. Yes, Barcelona and Real Madrid are iconic clubs, and likely always will be, but arguably that's because of what they have achieved in Europe.
The fact is, La Liga is nowhere near the commercial juggernaught that the PL has become
I think City's owners also own Girona, I think there's genuinely some kind of dodgy link there given Pep's brother is the other major owner.
Peter Lim (a billionaire from Singapore) owns Valencia so the league doesn't forbid a single, mega-rich foreigner owning a club.
If that's true, and the they're really looking for a ROI, then in all likelihood we won't be seeing fake inflated sponsorship deals from other PIF companies. Do you honestly think that won't happen?