2022 - 2023 Football Thread - Page 83

On February 14 2023 00:37 plasmidghost wrote:

That this is even being entertained by United is utterly depressing. The game is completely gone if United gets sold to the Qataris

On February 14 2023 01:04 sharkie wrote:
I actually hope qatar buys manutd. Some people still believe there is something romantic in football and that just isnt true.

On February 14 2023 01:01 evilfatsh1t wrote:
well its being entertained by the glazers. and its either jim ratcliffe matches/outbids the qataris or the uk government intervenes. i dont know much about uk law and whether theyd have a good enough basis to block the sale but the australian government has specifically blocked a sale of a company to china citing security concerns in the past so maybe its possible.
im not even english but surely from the uk governments perspective theres something attractive about the biggest english club being returned to english ownership? how could you allow such a club to be sold to qatar?

On February 14 2023 12:28 DropBear wrote:

Jim Ratcliffe is not a saint. He's arguably worse on environmental impact that Qatar. He's also a resident of Monaco now, not the UK. He specifically made this move to not pay tax in the UK. He will treat United just like the Glazers did, not how the Mansours, Abramoviches and PIFs have. Do not make the mistake of thinking that Ratcliffe is a benevolent United fan who wants the best for the club.

From a strictly United fan perspective, you should surely want the Qataris over Ratcliffe. For the rest of football, you have to hope a deal collapses entirely.

On February 14 2023 14:36 evilfatsh1t wrote:

well i dont really give a shit what theyve done for the environment tbh. thats not the bar im judging qatar against. im against state ownership first and foremost and im also against any owner with a huge amount of cash operating clubs with a blatant disregard for ffp rules, such as the way psg/city did.

jim ratcliffe isnt personally buying united, ineos is. ineos is a british company and so the point would stand, that the biggest english club and one of englands biggest and most famous institutions is being brought back to english ownership.

and i dont think you appreciate how bad the glazers were. its gonna be hard for any owner to be as bad as they were, when the glazers have done literally nothing of benefit to the club. jim ratcliffe is a well known lifelong united fan and so i dont think theres any evidence to suggest that he would be closer to the glazers than mansour/abramovich etc.

that said, ratcliffe is most likely going to have to leverage his deal which would leave united in the same position as it is with the glazers, so his purchase still isnt ideal from a united fan perspective. youre probably right that from a strictly united fan perspective, the qataris are better simply because they are probably the only party that could purchase the club outright with zero debt and leave the club in the best financial position possible. however im taking a broader perspective and would rather have the club in debt under ratcliffe and hope he treats the club better than the glazers, than to allow one of the biggest footballing institutions in the world be sold to a despicable state and watch the last sanctity of the football industry come crashing down.

to make a further point about my own reason for being a united fan, when youre not a local you pick a club to root for based on a variety of other factors. for me it wasnt necessarily the success that united had at the time i started watching, it was the "values" that the club espoused, especially under the management of saf. accepting qatari ownership would be like going back on everything the club stood for and would diminish the degree to which i could personally identify with the club's "philosophies".

On February 14 2023 18:50 Harris1st wrote:


International popularity is dependant a lot on successful and hype players which are all bought out from the Bundesliga by Oil money from Saudi, Russia or Qatar.
The other thing is that Bayern are clear cut favorites every season, which makes it boring to watch

On February 14 2023 17:39 evilfatsh1t wrote:
funnily enough i think the other leagues should take a page out of the bundesliga's books and find a way to have mandatory community involvement in the ownership of the club. it might not necessarily be the bundesliga's 50+1 model but every major club in the world was at its roots, built by their local communities and i think these communities should continue to have some weight on how the clubs are operated.