Matthew Syed Hits Out At Roman Abramovich

[hertsblue]

And people wonder in the Sky Hatred thread why people hate sky. Why be a mouthpiece to this moron and put him on.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Why is no-one commenting on what this idiot said about Sheikh Mansour? What a steaming pile of turd. Sheikh Mansour bought City to protect himself from the fallout of a war between Iran and Israel? That is an unimaginably stupid statement.

1. Firstly, no-one needs protection from Iran anyway. Iran has not invaded anyone in hundreds of years. If it's the nuclear threat, there's no protection possible. A missile-launched nuke from Iran could hit Abu Dhabi in thirty seconds.

2. Secondly, it's bizarre to talk of fallout anyway as if they'd just happen to be affected by events that have nothing to do with them, because the UAE are one of the nations pushing (or have in the recent past pushed) for an attack on Iran, as revealed by the Wikileaks embassy cables. Moreover, they're going to the US for that, NOT Britain. If a conflict did happen (which is thankfully far less likely now Ahmadinejad has gone), and the UAE had to defend itself, it is armed with plenty of the most modern western equipment, as is Saudi Arabia, indeed more so, who likewise would respond in full-force to highly unlikely Iranian conventional aggression.

3. Thirdly, if they did want British protection they'd already have it. The UAE buys billions in British-manufactured arms on a regular basis. You think the British establishment aren't going to be more protective of billions of pounds of arms deals (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.caat.org.uk/resources/export-licences/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.caat.org.uk/resources/export-licences/</a>) and tens of thousands of British jobs, than a football club? Really?

What an utter moron. Wrong on every single possible count. I can only presume that to be a journalist you are required either to be ignorant, or a liar, because knowledgeable truthfulness is not something I associate with any publication bar Private Eye.

Well, said, Skash.

Syed has long-standing form when it comes to sneering at our owners, but I am yet to see him vilify the Glazers to anything like the same extent in any of his long-winded, dreary and self-indulgent articles that he writes for the Times.

Same old, same old.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

The most boring Table Tennis player ever.

 

[Castiel]

I love how so many people in the press purport to have such a keen insight into the workings of Abramovich's mind despite failing to ever even achieve an interview with him in the last 10 years.

The man came from nothing. He was orphaned and living in poverty. Then came the fall of the Soviet Union. Russia at the time was a place that most of us would never have even been able to survive in, least of all these moralistic journalists. In a kill or be killed world, he managed to raise himself to incredible wealth and then gave back to help improve the wretched circumstances he came from. He's spent over $300 million on charitable developments to improve quality of life in his home province of Chukotka over the last few years alone, more than any other from the Russian elite.

I'm not going to sit here in comfortable safe little England and judge someone (out of jealousy) for thriving in an incarnation of hell on earth. Especially not when he remembers his roots and actually acts rather than talks. Many of the oligarchs amassed their wealth by selling Soviet military assets to terrorist organisations and militant governments, profiting on civil wars and human misery. Our soldiers in Afghanistan are currently fighting militants armed with old Soviet hardware to this day. Roman seized natural resources in the power vacuum left by totalitarian collapse, stripped and sold them to the west (us!). Western Europe didn't feel morally obliged to reject the coal and oil coming out of Russia in the aftermath, but apparently this unfairly accumulated money is too dirty for football.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

He was right in the sense that most of these owners (including Sheik Mansour) are buying football clubs with aims other than simply making the club a profitable business in its own right (although that would be desirable). Obviously he was ridiculously off the mark with his reasons. It seems pretty obvious to me that Mansour's interest in football is as a vehicle to promote Abu Dhabi as a whole and all of his business interests.

 

[unexpected item]

Leaving aside the rights and wrong of what Syed said for a mo', I enjoyed the slight note of fear in the voices of the SSN presenters because something contentious was being said, live on air.

I bet Jim White's arsehole was going half a crown - sixpence, half a crown - sixpence while he was thinking 'where the fuck is this convo going?'

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

If we're going to talk about owners let's go down the list.

The Glazers. Dubious business practices and keen users of other people's money to leverage their businesses to the hilt. Note interested in what they can take out than what they can put in.

Arsenal. Majority owned by a man who made his fortune from marrying into the Walmart-owning Walton family. That's a business with dubious employment practices. Then there is Usmanov from the unspeakable Uzbekistan. Never hear much about him.

At Spurs, there's currency speculator Joe Lewis, who made billions betting against the pound as it collapsed.

Gold & Sullivan at West Ham. Al Fayed at Fulham. None of them ever come in for stick.

Football owes people like Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour far more than it owes the others.

 

[THFC6061]

I love how so many people in the press purport to have such a keen insight into the workings of Abramovich's mind despite failing to ever even achieve an interview with him in the last 10 years.

The man came from nothing. He was orphaned and living in poverty. Then came the fall of the Soviet Union. Russia at the time was a place that most of us would never have even been able to survive in, least of all these moralistic journalists. In a kill or be killed world, he managed to raise himself to incredible wealth and then gave back to help improve the wretched circumstances he came from. He's spent over $300 million on charitable developments to improve quality of life in his home province of Chukotka over the last few years alone, more than any other from the Russian elite.

I'm not going to sit here in comfortable safe little England and judge someone (out of jealousy) for thriving in an incarnation of hell on earth. Especially not when he remembers his roots and actually acts rather than talks. Many of the oligarchs amassed their wealth by selling Soviet military assets to terrorist organisations and militant governments, profiting on civil wars and human misery. Our soldiers in Afghanistan are currently fighting militants armed with old Soviet hardware to this day. Roman seized natural resources in the power vacuum left by totalitarian collapse, stripped and sold them to the west (us!). Western Europe didn't feel morally obliged to reject the coal and oil coming out of Russia in the aftermath, but apparently this unfairly accumulated money is too dirty for football.

You make him sound like Gustav Graves, the main villain in the Bond movie "Die Another Day".

 

[carlos tevez is a blue]

Did the Glaziers not take money out of the rags to fund a shopping mall in America? that's far worse.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Did the Glaziers not take money out of the rags to fund a shopping mall in America? that's far worse.

Seems like a plan to me.