I think that they're in an industry where dirty money pollutes every aspect of the game, and are correctly trying to stay out of the political side of it and focus on football. They aren't politicians and it isn't their job to cast moral judgement, they are there to manage football clubs. If you see it differently that's fine, but I find the asking football managers questions about ownership in press conferences really tiresome, especially when it's repetitive and they know the manager will say nothing and isn't involved in that side of things.
Managers are commonly the face of the club; particularly when you have owners that refuse to face the public. We should see MORE media pressure exerted, not less. If Managers have to shoulder that burden then so be it...... I have zero sympathy if they find it tireseome or whatever else (see above re: "choices")..... The importance is that the question is kept in the public/media consciousness (even if they remain unanswered.)
(Does the flagrant hypocrisy of the amount of media suddenly questioning the Chavs ownership connections & motives after 20 years of blatantly knowing the score not sicken you?)
When it comes to football I switch off most ethical concerns. Its sport and I treat it as such. Fair enough if you see it differently, but I don't know how you coped when we sell Walker to City, or the next time we sell to an oil club.
"Cope" would be the wrong word; but yes I'm at odds with it; as I am with what the modern game is rapidly and increasingly becoming.
Said it a number of times, but if we'd have won that CL final I'd have likely walked away proud and happy.... Alas, as the meme says... "....and then they drag you back in"...... 40 year habbits are f'kin hard to kick!
The chances of a sports washer taking over the club at some point are pretty good, or at least us being involved in that. This is the modern game now. Everyone has their hands all over the dirty money, whether that's some level of investment, direct ownership, or doing business and legitimising them.
I think conflating the idea of state & oligarch sports-washing with the average grimey business person indulging their ego is in betrayal of the issues at play here.
Indulging your take for a moment..... Humanitarian ethics aside; this type of sports washing creates a false economy within the game which as you said above kicks us down the pecking order (3 times in the last 20 years now). Not because of genuine commercial investment, but an otherwise completely un-sustainable spending model that can only be deployed because of the deeper benefits to the ulterior motives (i.e. the very need to sports-wash to begin with.)......
X or Y football chairman (businessman) may be a greasy cunt with somewhat dodgy accounts, but economically there's no deeper motive that allows them to literally burn money at the rate that the Saudis, Qatar etc. are prepared to (***).
(***See RA 'happily' writing off 1.5bn in loans.)
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