Don't patronize me I know what it was, but some things are better left un said. Maybe you don't have any idea how fast the mob can turn these jokes into let's say chants or whatever.
Club Sale | It’s done!
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That's.... actually tolerable.Latest rumours point to a bid by evil empiror Ming the Merciless from the planet Mongo. Make of that what you will.
Another football club United of Manchester
He’s a regular match-goer so I think he understands full well
The amount of times this has been posted on here.
It is the investment corporation of Dubai that would be interested and they have a net worth of over 400 billion. I think we would be ok
Depends if you classify bribing Fifa officials to host the event and overseeing loads of deaths in the building phase as 'doing good'.
Tbf a lot of it is on Fifa for the double cross about it being a winter world cup and holding in a country that doesn't welcome certain fans because of their discriminatory laws.
Qatar is obviously free to promote itself however it wants and it was a good world cup in many ways, seemingly well run on the plus side. On the flipside, the regime is bigoted and cannot be trusted, eg the 11th hour alcohol volte face.
Sportswashing may be a hackneyed term, but it was clearly the aim. You could see how shocked and genuinely pissed they were at the focus on the negatives. They'd expected the press to just write about football and the sparkly new stadiums.
Sorry you don't want shiny new signings you also want a shiny new stadium. Much better
Yes, that's correct.
You are right on some things. They didn't try to hide the sharia way of life. No LGBTQ rights, women rights and no alcohol. Why would they? They actually have support for this in many parts of the world. No need to hide that. What they did try to hide was death of migrant workers, and slave pay and slave rights. They also try to hide the blatant corruption.
No offensive but you asked what is sport washing hiding in a long post that didn’t mention the fact Qatar is a monarchy/dictatorship that pretty much uses slave labour.
You only have to look at the last few pages to see that sports washing is a incredibly effective tool.
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Not a rich guy, but I’d be interested to hear more?
Honestly, I think that can be debated. Why does Qatar and the likes care about what other thinks of them? Because they do. The reason for it is because they want to be allowed to enter into our economy. They want to have credibility.
And they are, already, let in. And have been, for a long time. If anything, the World Cup have probably made many question Qatar than they would have done if it wasn't held there. But ultimately, to the extent the Qatar needs government approval and what not in the UK or anywhere else in the West -- they get it already. They don't need to be 'washed'. An anonymous Colombian with a boatload of money would have a hard time making deals in Europe. These investment funds are way past that point. Nobody will refrain from doing business with them.
I do get a little tired of all talks about how fans are made subject of sports washing, when nobody with any kind of decision making position obviously never felt there was something that was dirty which needed washing to start with. The EU just the other week struck a large agreement with Qatar. It is exposed how Qatar was bribing individuals in the EU parlament -- nobody will stop doing business with Qatar due to it. What you and I see as "dirt" in this context, is obviously something that the people in charge couldn't care less about.
I was responding to somebody talking about the GDP of Dubai, so entirely irrelevant.
As an aside, actually, what’s the fecking point in an investment arm of a state if they allow the state itself to go broke. Not sure I’d trust any leadership that’s that bad at simple logistics.
There is a lot of virtue signalling going on or a lot of naive kids who have not seen the world yet ie realpolitik.
Well yeah the current one is a shambles and falling to bits in places. The current owners won't spend the money.Sorry you don't want shiny new signings you also want a shiny new stadium. Much better
What's your solution?
Anyone who would rather have the Glazers over middle eastern money is so stupid. These yanks aren't angels either. They are venture capitalist pigs that transfered THEIR
debt onto us.
I'd take Dubai over Glazers every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
News will break on the 25th of December and it will be an oil state. No need to thank me, I didn't want anything else anyway. 
Ho-ho-ho!
Ho-ho-ho!Would agree with you but the washing here Imo is that fans see all the links Qatar has to western economies and end up thinking if you can't beat them, join them. It becomes a there is no alternative reality and any critical thought goes out the window(There’s was a poster on here yesterday, essentially arguing he was too stupid to care about human right abuses).
It starts of with fans feeling uneasy with potential ownership, then acceptance/excuse making and finally ending with fans supporting the dictatorship(Tbh people are already doing that now).
Dubai had to be bailed out during the financial crisis of 2008, when they had just started their journey towards a more diversified and sustainable economy. Now there is talk of that has happened again in early 2022, but it is a little bit more to it than last time. Dubai has been building itself as a financial and tourism centre since the last financial crisis - the two sectors who took the biggest hit during the pandemic and are still trying to recover all over the world. Besides that they are investing heavily in being the leading force in sustainable innovation in the technology and energy sector. Bear in mind that Abu Dhabi are very much interested in, borderline dependant on, Dubai succeeding in this, hence why they are not hesitant on helping out their little brother. Also Abu Dhabi has been funding all of the Emirates in UAE throughout the years anyway since they have the biggest oil income of all seven.
For what it's worth, I very much doubt they are remotely close to being broke (despite a heavy increase in loan-to-GDP percentage). On the surface it looks like they have manage to stabilize its economy after the pandemic, and are even expecting a small increase in GDP for 2023. That is backed up by the performances of the ICD.'
Speaking of ICD: That investment fund is based on huge institutions in the area, like ENOC (oil & gas), Emirates Airlines (top three airline worldwide), DXB (recently named the best airport in the world), EMAAR and several well-known establishments in the hospitality sector and by asset value is one of the largest in the world. Although around half of KSA's PIF in comparison, the numbers are so high that it barely would matter in terms of football ownership. Although asset value is slightly down compared to pre-pandemic, both total revenue and profit are significantly up in the black which is a complete turnaround from the first pandemic year.
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on Christmas day? yeah very unlikelyNews will break on the 25th of December and it will be an oil state. No need to thank me, I didn't want anything else anyway.
To be honest I've no idea how it works I just know how much it appears to be worth. How much they could actually use on one assett who knows?
I am still hoping it won't be be any middle east buyer
Yes it does work. Have you ever wondered why you rarely hear about this shit going on in these countries? Have you ever wondered why there's so many politicians and rich businessmen quick to jump to the defence of oil states?
It's obviously working because people like you post stuff like this on forums.
Media are almost always focused on local news or topics that are close to their audience, this is true everywhere. And we hear about things going on in these countries disproportionately, you hear a lot more about what is happening in the Middle East than you do about what is happening in Panama, Nicaragua or Bangladesh.
It's hard to tell because investing in sports is not something ICD has done before and doesn't really fit with their vision so far (more locally centred). Might be a personal connection as well which has been covered a bit before in this thread (former Crowne Prince, now deceased, was a massive United fan - now it's his brother who is in charge of ICD). They reported a net profit of over 10bn AED for 2021, which equals around 2,3bn GBP I think. Based on my knowledge of ICD though, is that if they do end up buying United it will be on the back of a thorough due diligence and that they have deemed it worth it in terms of asset growth and stability (not dividends). And hopefully true that Hamdan is a United fan.
It's generally very hard to find anything on the subject from the area (press or words on the street). Dubai's international arm (DIC) was linked heavily with Liverpool about 15 years ago, but apparently that was due to the then chairman being a fan and season ticket holder. That subsidiary is dissolved as far I know now, yet are still being linked with Liverpool in English media and some are saying it's HRH Sheikh Mohammad himself that is a Liverpool fan but I couldn't find anything on that locally.
In fairness more people are aware of the shitty things going on in Qatar because they hosted the World Cup than ever would have known if they hadn't. I'm not sure the aim is to sportswash, if it was then for instance they could easily have been open to the rainbow flags for 1 month to somewhat change the perception of them but they didn't because they don't care and wanted to show they could push FIFA around. They want the power of being one of the states that largely run top level football, it gives them more credibility amongst the major powers and opens them up to more opportunities.
I really hope that an oil state doesn't take us over, I don't want United to be a tool to boost the political power of anyone. The club doesn't even need that, it can run successfully as both a football club and business as long as its run by people who are competent.
And since the press did write about their nasty side that they wanted kept in the shadows, what has changed in Qatar for the oppressed? I can tell you, nothing! You seem to place a disproportionate importance on Western public opinion on these things when all that matters, to the decision makers, is the money.
Like another poster said, its too late to try and impose values on them when they have been let in already. They already own more important things in England than a football club and if they want this club they will have it.
The M.E dictatorships, the Chinese, the Russians and many African dictators have interests in various sectors of the Western economy including companies that employ a lot on here. The Saudis part funded Musk's Twitter takeover, for example. If we aren't boycotting products made by companies they own, jobs at companies we know they own and if we aren't boycotting the oil that give them the power to practically enslave their populations then its disingenuous to throw toys out of prams over the prospect of them owning our club.
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Tongue-in-cheek I assume but I reckon its quite plausible that, assuming they want it sold by the end of Q1 2023, the deadline for bids could be Jan 31st and so it would kick on in the new year.News will break on the 25th of December and it will be an oil state. No need to thank me, I didn't want anything else anyway.
Ornstein's report doesn't trump the previous Athletic report or even contradict it. The Athletic have previously written that a ME nation state is unlikely to be interested in purchasing United, citing experts in the region and from the financial world - Ornstein repeats that line again in his piece. He goes on to say that Avram Glazer met with "potential investors" (partial sale?) from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but then caveated this by writing that "the nature of the talks between Glazer and the different groups he met in Doha is not clear and Glazer has other business interests in the region." Needless to say, it will do The Raine Group's negotiations with interested parties no harm at all for reports to have surfaced that Glazer has met with Middle Eastern investors... At this stage, we still thankfully have reasons to be sceptical about the likelihood of "oil state" ownership of the club, although admittedly, this could change quite quickly.
Yep and it was basically the American sports model. Closed set up. No incentive to win. Just like the different American sports franchises like the Bengals or kings etc. Everyone makes money forever.
Whats bill Gates doing these days?
Giving away most of his fortune last I heard
Sounds like a perfect fit To me.
Can't believe nobody has suggested Disney yet.
What a fairy tale that suggestion is.
Maguire as Thor FTW !
Yeah I'm surprised also, the rumours get more unbelievable with time. Netflix after them probably
FTFY
So we shouldn't bother highlighting egregious government practices then? No-one was expecting an overnight change, but that doesn't mean these things shouldn't be challenged.
Of course the global financial system is incredibly intertwined. It's a bit different ME states owning some trophy offices in London and chunks of assorted listed companies like Barclays versus getting hold of United though.
And yep we know the Glazers are all about the cash and we don't any control over who they sell it to. Chances are it will be a new owner with some skeletons in their closet, rather than and the mythical benign billionaire many want.
Don't see why it's disingenuous to not be happy about this though?
In this case you'd be more than willing to roll out the red carpet if Russia for instance wanted to buy United and Putin install himself as defacto owner, Russia did a lot of what you put there and are also bombing people like the UAE and Saudi are currently doing in Yemen.
Not entirely true. His philanthropy work is for the sole purpose of trying to buy a nobel peace prize.
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