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Transfers Summer 2021 - Transfer Thread

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FightingIllini said:
So, put yourself in the shoes of Qatar or Abu Dhabi. What those kingdoms have been desperate to do for decades is diversify their wealth and asset portfolio beyond just oil extraction, both due to the economic problems caused by price fluctuation and the knowledge that one way or another that market will eventually end. This isn't armchair psychology, this is the constantly expressed guiding ideology of these governments.

This is why Dubai is a gleaming tourist mecca subsidized by state-owned luxury airlines, this is why they're always partnering with American and other foreign Universities, this is why MBS in Saudi Arabia is always coming up with hare-brained schemes, it's all about establishing sources of state revenue that are not oil-based. Money is no object now, but they need future dollars, their opportunity costs and incentives are different than a western investor.

These are also, as we know, deeply authoritarian, brutal, and corrupt regimes. They are badly in need of guillotine insurance, so to speak. And their population is among the most football-obsessed in the world.

Investing in European clubs solves both problems! The "sportswashing" to the extent "look at our shiny winning football team a continent away" is part of the motivation isn't meant to influence Europeans, it's meant to influence their own people.

Two very obvious things that reveal the sportswashing narrative to have no clothes are first that these projects have brought more spotlight on the awfulness of these regimes than anything in decades and everyone hates their clubs, and second that the existentially important ally of these regimes is not the European voter but the American military-industrial complex, which recent positive trends notwithstanding doesn't know or care the first thing about football.

The sheikhs are in this to create a sustainable revenue stream that isn't oil-dependent, and they, exactly like ENIC, exactly like the PL American contingent, all see the top of European football as an undervalued future growth market, based heavily on the potential to transform into an anti-competitive NFL of Pan-European Football. Their underlying imperatives and motivations are different, but they are in football to accomplish the same goal and they understand one another as allies, not competitors.

(Abramovich is fundamentally all the same shit, just with slightly different particulars)
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I absolutely disagree that owning these clubs is chiefly about developing stable and diverse revenue streams independent of oil. If that is the goal then buying up football clubs is absolutely the worst way of going about that. Football clubs are not reliably profitable, they are absolutely not stable, and for jesus christ's sake from a major international economic perspective, they don't even make a lot of money.

If the UAE and Qatar was sincere about diversifying revenue then they would be buying up major stakes in British pharma and insurance companies, or similar. Buying up Man City that didn't clear half a billion in revenue last year really doesn't shift the needle on diversifying sovereign wealth for the UAE.
 
VirginiaSpur said:
I absolutely disagree that owning these clubs is chiefly about developing stable and diverse revenue streams independent of oil. If that is the goal then buying up football clubs is absolutely the worst way of going about that. Football clubs are not reliably profitable, they are absolutely not stable, and for jesus christ's sake from a major international economic perspective, they don't even make a lot of money.

If the UAE and Qatar was sincere about diversifying revenue then they would be buying up major stakes in British pharma and insurance companies, or similar. Buying up Man City that didn't clear half a billion in revenue last year really doesn't shift the needle on diversifying sovereign wealth for the UAE.
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They are buying up massive amounts of prime real estate across the world and have been for decades. Thats more wealth diversification than anything.

I don't know that I buy much into the sportswashing angle. I think its the same as most football club owners, insanely rich people buying toys because Ferraris are "cheap". But I do also buy into marketing side of things, as well. I think more than anything it was done to leverage fifa to deliver us this travesty of a middle east WC in Sheikhland. It gave them a seat at the table of global football.

In the end, really, when the West doesn't need/want their oil anymore they're going to brand them all terrorists and seize their foreign assets. If our Chinese overlords allow us to, that is.
 
VirginiaSpur said:
If the UAE and Qatar was sincere about diversifying revenue then they would be buying up major stakes in British pharma and insurance companies, or similar. Buying up Man City that didn't clear half a billion in revenue last year really doesn't shift the needle on diversifying sovereign wealth for the UAE.
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Qatar are the largest shareholder in Sainsbury’s, they own a big chunk of Heathrow Airport, Volkswagen, Barclays, a bunch of other financial institutions, they have a colossal real estate portfolio, they plunge all sorts of money into emerging markets. PSG is a drop in the bucket, just a very high-profile one to sports dorks like us.

This isn’t an argument for not imposing financial controls on the game, nor that we ought to look upon these clubs or these owners any more favorably. It’s just the reality of why these projects exist, the whole “sportswashing” narrative is bullshit. It’s a totally myopic Eurocentric sports-centric perspective that doesn’t see the world through their eyes.

(And to be fair, there is certainly SOME degree of these being rich playboys having fun with their toys. But cast your eyes upon elite global business for more than five seconds and you’ll realize that’s always a factor in any industry)
 
Bill Madrid said:
No team is packed with leaders tho.

To varying degrees we have Hugo, Harry, Dier, PEH, maybe even the reborn Dele... On the fringe Davies perhaps, even Winks at a pinch...

Plus you don't just go out and buy leaders and plug them in, they grow into the role
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what makes you think dele and winks are leader types? i think most people would consider them about as far away from being a leader as you can get
 
MemphisWill said:
They are buying up massive amounts of prime real estate across the world and have been for decades. Thats more wealth diversification than anything.

I don't know that I buy much into the sportswashing angle. I think its the same as most football club owners, insanely rich people buying toys because Ferraris are "cheap". But I do also buy into marketing side of things, as well. I think more than anything it was done to leverage fifa to deliver us this travesty of a middle east WC in Sheikhland. It gave them a seat at the table of global football.

In the end, really, when the West doesn't need/want their oil anymore they're going to brand them all terrorists and seize their foreign assets. If our Chinese overlords allow us to, that is.
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I think the truest aspect is what he described as "guillotine insurance".

In the 20th century kleptocrats would park their nation's funds in numbered accounts distributed around the world. In the 21st century, modern kleptocrats have realized that western countries don't fucking care if they want to launder their money in plain sight, by buying up appreciable assets. All of these sheikhs and oligarchs are standing on quicksand, and they could be swallowed up at any moment by a popular uprising. It's plunder, plain and simple.

And I disagree that the idea that buying up these clubs hasn't bought them some legitimacy and popular press in the West. Every time someone like Matthew Syed goes on television talking about sports-washing, he's always utterly alone and surrounded by talking heads and hosts eager to end with the line "but what do you have to say to the Chelsea City fans, who are celebrating their title win?"
 
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