Chelsea were the most recent large club before the oil state clubs to use owner wealth to successfully break football apart
Other clubs have done it before (Blackburn rovers for example), Chelsea are just the most notable recent ones who took it further than it had gone before, until the oil clubs overtook them.
The oil clubs are doing the financial doping but also it’s much darker with them since they’re sportswashing as well - abramovich might have been a bastard but he’s leagues behind Saudi Arabia and the like in terms of crimes against humanity - hence those clubs are the new poster boys
Blackburn’s benefactor was a guy born in Blackburn, who made his money with a business based 5 miles from Ewood Park.
There’s a huge difference between this and what Man City, PSG, et al are doing.
This is true. What my point was no loan has ever been taken to pay wages. As far as I am aware. I would be open to stand corrected with valid sources though.
Neither me or the person I responded to mentioned loans to pay wages. Did you mean to respond to someone else?
Ohh yeah, sorry. I am at work and saw wages pop up in some comments, and replied as per that. But I do agree, loans are taken to pay for transfer fees. It’s standard for every major transfer irrespective of the club.
No worries
I mean yeah I get it, but that’s leaving out a relevant historical context as to why those things happened.
I agree that Chelsea should not be seen as “where things gone wrong”, but pointing out to Nazi Germany to say things have always been wrong just seems whataboutism with a really low bar
Football went wrong years ago, it’s not a working mans game anymore. It’s a business for the big clubs, not a sporting enterprise, hence the superleague.
yeah but his analogy sounds more fun and exciting
Do you know how they’re involved?
Saudi PIF are using Clearlake Investment’s investment services, because Clearlake are good at what they do which is why they can afford to buy Chelsea. Shocking.
Brighton are sponsored by American Express, so of course they have ties with every criminal that uses American Express, right?
Exactly the equivalent of saying Man U have ties with Russia, because some russian officials use TeamViewer and they sponsor Man U.
Besides, Arsenal are sponsored by Emirates and had the whole “Visit Rwanda” travesty. How TF are you on a high horse?
Or maybe Saudi Arabia owning a club, Qatar owning a club, or clubs like Bury that have gone out of busiensss due to shitty owners should be in & around no 1
In absolute terms Saudi and Qatar owning clubs is worse for the game in my opinion. But Abramovich was one of the first pioneers of sports washing. An entity with a truly shady background completely changing his perception outside of Russia.
I doubt sports washing was his primary motivation. But as a side effect he showed the world what was possible and paved the way for Saudi and Qatar.
I fail to understand your point. How is getting a loan “ruining the sport”?
Also where do you get that they get loans with hardly any interest, if any? What kind of bank or financial institution is gifting money away?
And what was the Chelsea Loan Army beyond a “farm” system? It’s the same thing lol
No one who gets to the point where they can buy a club is a good person
It’s the cardinal rule of Reddit
They aren’t even in the top 10 of where football has “gone wrong”.
It’s like people not remembering Leeds. That was a disaster. Or Sunderland…
Or Southend. Or Scunthorpe. Or Bury. Or Macclesfield Town. In lower league football when things go wrong they can really go wrong. You could end up without a club at all.
Malaga
Racing de Santander
Deportivo La Coruña
Hey, I watched a show about Sunderland on Netflix I think. Owners had different priorities than winning from what i remember.
I kinda of feel Poch will turn it around, he is a really good coach and works the best with a group of young players
Feel like most of the other commenters didn’t actually read his article…
I pretty much agree with everything he’s saying. Football has been going downhill extremely quickly over the last 20-30 years. It’s so far out of touch from what it once was.
Between the nation states owning clubs and the hyper-capitalists making the fan experience downright dreadful it’s worrying to see how far the sport has fallen.