City & FFP | 2020/21 Accounts released | Revenues of £569.8m, £2.4m profit (p 2395)

dario2739 · 8 May 2014

Re: City & FFP (continued)

Brian Reade from the Mirror sticking up for us now....

Timid men in suits are STILL not tackling the genuine evils in football07 May 2014 08:00 PMBy Brian Reade

Authorities now cracking down on ambitious clubs daring to spend big to break into the game's elite continue to abide fans who wound with words and weapons

Why are we waiting? Blatter's FIFA and Platini's UEFA have spurned chance after chance to get tough

Thirty years ago, I walked out of a European Cup Final in Rome’s Stadio Olympico, straight into an ambush.

Hooded Vespa gangs circled, lashing out with knives. A mob shouting “Death to English b******s” lobbed paving stones and I was hit in the head with a crate.

As I staggered towards a copper with blood-matted hair, asking for help, he pulled out his baton and pushed me back towards the mob.

A mate was stabbed in the stomach and an elderly man with him was kicked senseless and left unconscious in the gutter.

The next day, Rome’s media reported that these “shameful” pre-meditated attacks by Ultras had sadly become an accepted part of Italian football.

UEFA said nothing.

Anyone who has watched football in Rome, and certain other Italian cities, since will probably know that authorities have allowed Ultras to become a law unto themselves.

I’m sure the family of Napoli fan Ciro Esposito do.

The 27-year-old car-wash attendant is fighting for his life in a Rome hospital after a bullet went through his lung and lodged in his spine during another ambush before Saturday’s Italian Cup Final.

Two other Napoli fans are in hospital with gun-shot wounds. Meanwhile, 48-year-old Roma Ultra leader, Daniele De Santis (who was probably a teenage knife-wielder back in 1984) is accused of attempted murder.

Rome’s mayor called the violence “shameful.”

UEFA have said nothing.

Spot the connection.

In three decades, nothing has changed. Italian football is still plagued by uncontrolled violence because no figure of authority in Italy or UEFA has the balls to take on mob rule.

Ten years ago, during a friendly international against Spain in Madrid, England’s black players were subjected to a non-stop barrage of monkey-grunts and chants such as “If you are not f*****g black, jump up and down” from many in the 55,000 crowd.

It followed similar racist abuse during the previous night’s Under-21 game.

Every English player, official and journalist present was left gob-smacked by the scale and relentlessness of the abusers and the casual acceptance of it by the non-abusers.

Ashley Cole’s distraught mother led calls for Spain to be banned from European football.

A FIFA spokesman said: “There is no room whatsoever for racism or discrimination in our sport,” and promised an investigation. The Spanish FA were eventually fined a paltry £50,000.

A fortnight ago, Barcelona’s Dani Alves ate a banana thrown at him by Villarreal fans. UEFA have just fined the club the grand sum of £10,000.

Far from fine: Villarreal must pay just £10,000 over banana-throwing incident

On Sunday, Senegalese midfielder Pape Diop was so affected by the monkey taunts raining down on him from Atletico Madrid fans, he turned and imitated a dancing chimp.

A UEFA spokesman said they were against “all forms of discrimination,” before pointing out they were unable to do anything about it.

So, 10 years on, nothing has changed. Because, as with the Italian Ultras, no-one in authority has the balls to take on this moronic minority. A cosy situation summed up by this quote from the Spanish football president, Angel Villa Llona, who is also UEFA vice-president and a member of FIFA’s executive committee: “There is no racism in Spanish football.”

UEFA chief Michel Platini is currently patting himself on the back for imposing punitive fines on big-spending, nouveau-riche clubs despite most observers seeing his Financial Fair Play as a cynical attempt by a handful of globally-supported elite clubs to ring-fence their wealth.

Meanwhile, he and FIFA president Sepp Blatter encourage the genuine evils in football to fester: Bigots who de-humanise with words, criminals who maim and kill with weapons and the timid men in suits - within and without their organisations - who, through turning blind eyes, protect them.

jrb · 8 May 2014

Re: City & FFP (continued)

Aren't there any new FFPR articles yet? It's past 12 o'clock.

Has the stage coach turned back into a pumpkin yet, and does the slipper still fit Platini's foot?

Daz_Blue · 8 May 2014

Re: City & FFP (continued)

WTF

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... rules.html

If this is true we need to go and burn down UEFA's HQ

Prestwich_Blue · 8 May 2014