Liverpool Thread - 2022/23

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JASR said:
Red shirt fans didn’t go ‘yep it’s sportswashing’ in 2008, that only came when we beat United to the PL in 2012 & Liverpool in 2014. Suddenly the realisation that the recent past (united) and the middle past (Liverpool) duopoly was going to be broken, and that their team wasn’t going to be top dog, caused them and the sycophantic media to search around for any excuse (other than the obvious factual truth)… and hey presto the meaningless soundbite ‘sportswashing’ became a thing to repeat ad nauseum.
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Yep. Luckily, Google allows you to limit searches to particular dates, so you can see when people actually started talking about something. Actually the peak for the phrase sportswashing is 2005, and I think mostly refers to some golf tournament in Saudi and the Bahrain Grand Prix. In fact, every reference to sportswashing I can find refers to a country hosting a sporting event. If you search 'sportswashing Man City' and limit searches to before July 2011, you get "It looks like there aren't many great matches for your search." Even after we won the title, there was no talk of sportswashing. When Baku hosting the European Games in 2015, there were accusations of sportswashing, but it was still something that had not been levelled at City's owners at that point. When Guardiola arrived in 2016, it wasn't mentioned.

Genuinely, the first example I can find of someone being 'concerned' about human rights in relation to Man City is a 2018 article in the Independent by Miguel Delaney.
 
I'm With Stupid said:
Yep. Luckily, Google allows you to limit searches to particular dates, so you can see when people actually started talking about something. Actually the peak for the phrase sportswashing is 2005, and I think mostly refers to some golf tournament in Saudi and the Bahrain Grand Prix. In fact, every reference to sportswashing I can find refers to a country hosting a sporting event. If you search 'sportswashing Man City' and limit searches to before July 2011, you get "It looks like there aren't many great matches for your search." Even after we won the title, there was no talk of sportswashing. When Baku hosting the European Games in 2015, there were accusations of sportswashing, but it was still something that had not been levelled at City's owners at that point. When Guardiola arrived in 2016, it wasn't mentioned.

Genuinely, the first example I can find of someone being 'concerned' about human rights in relation to Man City is a 2018 article in the Independent by Miguel Delaney.
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Ta for searching. I did think it was later than I mentioned 2012/2014.
But I didn’t realise it was a full further 4 years.
Agenda’s and deflection, right there.
10 years after the start of the City project… after exhausting the ‘he’ll get bored’ trope, the ‘money doesn’t buy success’ trope, the direct attack of City FFP regulations… they come to ‘sportswashing’

Clear and obvious
 
JASR said:
Yes, it’s something I’ve never quite ‘got’.
If it was a ‘sportswashing’ exercise (it’s not), then HH would have pulled the plug about 2010 as the City juggernaut was starting to gather pace , as the rising tide of media bile searched for a new neoligism to soundbite their invective and settled on ‘sportswashing’.

City fans didn’t go ‘oh look were having investment, it must be because the nation of Abu Dhabi has told its citizens to spend their private money acquiring assets to sportswash their worldwide image’. No we went ‘Jesus aren’t we bloody lucky and look at this fantastic football, makes a change from the 35 years dominance of teams in red… oh and wow look at the plans for East Manchester- brilliant for such a cash deprived area’.

Red shirt fans didn’t go ‘yep it’s sportswashing’ in 2008, that only came when we beat United to the PL in 2012 & Liverpool in 2014. Suddenly the realisation that the recent past (united) and the middle past (Liverpool) duopoly was going to be broken, and that their team wasn’t going to be top dog, caused them and the sycophantic media to search around for any excuse (other than the obvious factual truth)… and hey presto the meaningless soundbite ‘sportswashing’ became a thing to repeat ad nauseum.

Financial knowledgeable people may have questioned the original takeover (they shouldnt have, the potential for growth/profit was plain to see, unless you wore a istree shirt), but by the time of 2012 and the ever burgeoning commercial and TV money being thrown at the PL, many people should have been searching for the next growth potential club. The fact that it’s taken till 2022 for the next massive potential growth club - Newcastle - to be taken over is a bit odd. ‘Missed the boat’ was a phrase used many times by City fans in the past decade, as the drawbridges of FFP etc were scattered everywhere to inhibit City and discourage others from ‘doing a city’.

As for ‘the man in the street’ who doesn’t fall into any of the other categories mentioned, I dont think they give a single thought to ‘sportswashing’ on any level … because they know it’s bollox.

‘Sportswashing’ - an artificial constructed soundbite to deflect from their own failings
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Great post, JASR.
 
JASR said:
Ta for searching. I did think it was later than I mentioned 2012/2014.
But I didn’t realise it was a full further 4 years.
Agenda’s and deflection, right there.
10 years after the start of the City project… after exhausting the ‘he’ll get bored’ trope, the ‘money doesn’t buy success’ trope, the direct attack of City FFP regulations… they come to ‘sportswashing’

Clear and obvious
Click to expand...
I knew it would all come out in the wash...
By the way, when var came out, which were the only 2 clubs not equipped for its' use?
(Clue: they both play in red.)
 
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