Club Sale | It’s done!

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Chesterlestreet

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''So you're telling me there's a chance?''

And that's all some will need to stick their heads in the sand and pretend this isn't a state backed bid.
Yes. And that's the thing I can't quite wrap my head around. Or rather - I understand it, but I'm shocked to see United fans I've known for years doing it.

And...it's (actually): sportswashing. Yeah? The thing some people claim is a myth.

When I run into a season ticket holder (a man I have known for years) who now argues that:

a) "we're not like City, we're a big club - it's not the same thing"

b) "we won't cheat like City - because we don't need to"

and

c) "it isn't Qatar, it's a Qatari businessman"

...and the same man, when I say: "Come on, this is the very thing you've ridiculed City for" responds by accusing me of being "prejudiced" (he refuses to go into details when I ask him)...

...my conclusion is that it is not a myth, and that it does work.
 

red thru&thru

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I'm pretty sure that the people who are using Forbes as the source, was only saying yesterday journalists/reporters know nothing! Haha

I could be wrong. :)
 

rimaldo

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SHE’S A GOOD LISTENER!!?!
she must be to put up with you using date night to run by her the letters you’re planning to send ten hag, with “tactical hints and tips that i think will bring you a wry smile, as well as some genuinely profound insight that will change the way you approach not only football management, but life in general.”
 

Shakesy

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Yes. And that's the thing I can't quite wrap my head around. Or rather - I understand it, but I'm shocked to see United fans I've known for years doing it.

And...it's (actually): sportswashing. Yeah? The thing some people claim is a myth.

When I run into a season ticket holder (a man I have known for years) who now argues that:

a) "we're not like City, we're a big club - it's not the same thing"

b) "we won't cheat like City - because we don't need to"

and

c) "it isn't Qatar, it's a Qatari businessman"

...and the same man, when I say: "Come on, this is the very thing you've ridiculed City for" responds by accusing me of being "prejudiced" (he refuses to go into details when I ask him)...

...my conclusion is that it is not a myth, and that it does work.
Orwellian bro. We can all do it
 

Adnan

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Sportico reported that bid hours ago and nobody else has even mentioned it. If they broke earth shattering news you can bet Kaveh would have tweeted four different views on it by now
I think once the bid goes in, Kaveh will be all over it. I think the advantage the journos at Sportico have is that their sources could well be giving them details of a bid before it goes in.
 

MiamiSpartan

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The Forbes estimate is nonsense

The Sunday Times have him at £2bn (already double of Forbes) and even that is going to be a massive underestimate as based only on publicly available info

You only have to read the history of the deals he's been involved in (the Shard, Harrods, Barclays Bank, Sainsbury's etc) and the things he owns (£300m yacht, £200m Picasso etc) to know he's clearly worth many multiples more than what public info might show

I have no doubt he can afford to buy the club, and anyway there are going to be financial institutions involved and maybe even consortium of other investors
You don't think Forbes would bother to factor any of that in?

And again, that's just daddy.

But even if you're right, you're suggesting that Jassim and/or his dad, have literally tens of billions of assets/income from completely unknown sources. If that's the case, don't you want to know where that money came from?

The money is coming from the state. It's a state bid with a front man to give the outward appearance that it isn't, for obvious reasons (PSG ownership). If you're ok with that, that's your right.
 

mu4c_20le

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You don't think Forbes would bother to factor any of that in?

And again, that's just daddy.

But even if you're right, you're suggesting that Jassim and/or his dad, have literally tens of billions of assets/income from completely unknown sources. If that's the case, don't you want to know where that money came from?

The money is coming from the state. It's a state bid with a front man to give the outward appearance that it isn't, for obvious reasons (PSG ownership). If you're ok with that, that's your right.
The problem with these domestic investments is that many of them are state resources, so its very difficult to separate between personal and state wealth. That number could be off by ten fold, a hundred fold, yes. But then you'd be heading into state territory.

You only have to read the history of the deals he's been involved in (the Shard, Harrods, Barclays Bank, Sainsbury's etc) and the things he owns (£300m yacht, £200m Picasso etc) to know he's clearly worth many multiples more than what public info might show
 

owlo

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I think once the bid goes in, Kaveh will be all over it. I think the advantage the journos at Sportico have is that their sources could well be giving them details of a bid before it goes in.
Unsure if different in the world of bidding for clubs, but in general activists/acquirers will ask a junior employee to deal with the press, feeding them information daily or whatever. So all the journos tend to jump in sync because that employees data isn’t always fluid.
 

Chesterlestreet

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Orwellian bro. We can all do it
I know, yeah.

I used to think it was purely hypothetical (and hysterical when proposed as an actual possibility).

But now I'm scared.

(Actually, to be perfectly honest I'm half scared and half perversely excited, because it turns out that some things I never imagined would be possible in this part of the world, in my lifetime, actually look more and more plausible.)
 

Shakesy

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I know, yeah.

I used to think it was purely hypothetical (and hysterical when proposed as an actual possibility).

But now I'm scared.

(Actually, to be perfectly honest I'm half scared and half perversely excited, because it turns out that some things I never imagined would be possible in this part of the world, in my lifetime, actually look more and more plausible.)
:lol:
 

Rood

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You don't think Forbes would bother to factor any of that in?

And again, that's just daddy.

But even if you're right, you're suggesting that Jassim and/or his dad, have literally tens of billions of assets/income from completely unknown sources. If that's the case, don't you want to know where that money came from?

The money is coming from the state. It's a state bid with a front man to give the outward appearance that it isn't, for obvious reasons (PSG ownership). If you're ok with that, that's your right.
No I don't - typical lazy journalism nowadays. TBF they have no way of knowing what he's actually worth.

But I know exactly where it comes from and yes part will undoubtedly have come from commissions/shares he earned for doing big deals for the sovereign wealth fund. But that doesn't make it a state bid and even if it was it wouldn't bother me much.
 

MiamiSpartan

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Even saying HBJ is independently wealthy I think misrepresents how things work in an absolute monarchy. Sure he doesn't hold any of the government offices he once did, and him and his kids aren't inline to have the crown, but they're just one branch removed. HBJ's influence inside and outside of the country is tied to the core branch and the Emir. He doesn't have several billion in assets outside of Qatar, or that would be more traceable and Forbes' estimate of his wealth would be higher than the $1.2B. If he were to have a total falling out with the Emir and had to live in exile (considering that he were to survive in the 1st place) he wouldn't have access to billions worth to make investments, be it football clubs or not. He'd live comfortably for sure, but not "I want to give my son $7B to buy a football club" comfortable.
I mean, if you want to say that, Jassim and the Emir at each at the end of very long, different branches. I believe the Emir shares a great great grandfather with Jassim's dad. IIRC, HBJ's great grandfather was brothers with the guy considered the father of modern Qatar.
And quite literally hundreds, if not thousands, of others are just as close by blood As Jassim and his dad.

Granted, because of the position in government that Jassim's dad (PM) and grandfather (a minister of some department, I believe) held, they are more intertwined in the politics of the country. But does that mean that the Emir just doles out billions to them for theor personal wealth.
 

AneRu

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Doesn't say anything we don't already know. Western sources like Bloomberg estimate his wealth at 1-2b. Even if they are off by 10x, are we really expecting him to hand over half of his money to his son? For an investment he disagrees with?
Jassim is not just his son, he is the son he once entrusted with the running of his vast wealth according to a Bloomberg report posted on here which made the claim that HBJ's wealth is vastly understated, until he decided to branch out on his own. No one really knows what his father is worth, what he allowed the son he holds in high regard, high enough to entrust him with managing his money, to branch out with.

The thing is with PEPs you never really know what they are worth or the avenues available to them to make obscene money. Even though its highly unlikely, its plausible that Jassim might have 3b of his own that his putting up, other brothers (remember he said his sons were pushing him) a couple of billion that they can spare and the father then agrees to add to what they have managed to raise.

Their father was Finance Minister, Chairman of the QIA and Prime Minister over a period spanning 18 years in a authoritarian regime that controls vast reserves of oil and gas. He was the spearhead of their outward investments, accountable to only one man who he has a close relationship with. He had the opportunity to loot as much as possible and by all accounts he did. I wouldn't be surprised if he set up all his sons to have enough seed money to be rich on their own.
 

FujiVice

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If Qatar pays 6 billion for us, you'd be a mug to think this club isnt going to go dominate in the very near future. This is a regime who clearly wants to have the biggest cock at the urinal.
 

jm99

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At the very least, yes.
And while that number probably isn't totally impossible for a guy who'd apparently amassed quite a lot of power under the previous emir, its still unlikely and ultimately the funds are still the Qatari state even if it is a few steps removed. But that's how any Qatari bid would be, the idea people were floating that the emir would be so involved as to put fair results into doubt if we were playing psg is ridiculous. They'll ultimately have their own footballing people, the funds will come from the state but I'm sure it'll be run independently. For Qatar it's just about having a positive association with their country in the west, I doubt the emir will have any involvement in the running of the club
 

BluesJr

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If Qatar pays 6 billion for us, you'd be a mug to think this club isnt going to go dominate in the very near future. This is a regime who clearly wants to have the biggest cock at the urinal.
And yet people see this as an issue somehow.
 
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