City launch legal action against the Premier League | City win APT case (pg901)

[blue for life]

Stefan on Talkshite after 12 noon

 

[johnevans]

And Spurs were the club who originally got round FA rules about paid directors and other things, when they set up a holding company over 40 years ago.

Instead of slapping them down, the FA were supine and, along with the scrapping of the ticket money sharing agreement, pretty well all the commercialisation of football started from there.

Exactly!

You just took me back to 1998 when we were clawing our way out of the third tier and I was at a company management meeting and having a pre-dinner drink at our Cotswold hotel with my colleagues. Those of us footy supporters in the group included a Sunderland Mackem (who, like me, went to games and always talked sense) and a couple of United fans along with one who followed Spurs and another, Arsenal.. all telly fans, of course, full of themselves..

The latter two were having the usual digs ('bantz' I believe the young bucks call it these days?!) at 'Ickle City of Division 3' (it was a couple of weeks before 'York away'.. my stars, how low had we fallen!); and then they had a few pops at the United fans for their club 'ruining' football with its obsession with 'making money'.

I put down my pint and pointed out a few things to said North London herberts. I said that however bad and treacherous the Red Filth might be for English football in general, it was Irving Scholar's early 80s takeover on the cheap at Spurs, plus the setting up of a new holding company which allowed for Directors to take money out of their clubs, that started the Gadarene rush towards the formation of the Premier League.

Spurs were quickly followed by David Dein et al at The Arse in chasing the filthy lucre that football was then beginning to generate. And of course, Martin Edwards at the Red Filth. I also pointed out the involvement of 'Big 5' (including Liverpool and Everton) in the grab for money, power and influence.

Pointing out their clubs' involvement in creating the state of football at that time in the late 90s, plus their hypocrisy in forgetting (or should that be 'not paying attention to'?) their respective clubs' history didn't exactly endear me to my colleagues but I'd had enough and they got the point.

My Mackem pal said as we went into dinner 'Serves 'em right for trying to cross swords on football with you!' My answer to him was a rather more terse 'F**k 'em..'

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

He's been implicated in match fixing scandals involving the club he owns (Aris Thessaloniki) in the Greek League. Also investigated for drug trafficking and smuggling and breaking sanctions in regards to Russian oil.

Yup, charge against him dropped when ALL the witnesses dissapeared. Crazy stuff yet he is here in the PL