Rival watch

i think the "cultural racism" thing was more about saying UAE is the same as saudi arabia so we can talk about city. It would probably be like someone from the UAE comparing UK to France as we are both liberal heathen societies. I don't profess to know either UAE or Saudi except for what we hear about their very strict religious rules

It's a blurred line between stereotyping and "casual racism" so understandable and i think that was what King is saying.

Probably all best to forget about

 

yeah Bob...good attempt at forgetting all about it

 

It also has to be said that saying they're the same is definitely troublesome, not least as it assumes the same ethnic background, and a cursory look at Wikipedia says why this is an issue

Saudi Arabia
63% Saudis (which is the equivalent of 20.7m people)
37% non-Saudis (which is the equivalent of 13.5m people)

UAE
59.4% South Asian (which is the equivalent of just under 600,000 people)
11.6% Emirati Arab (which is the equivalent of just under 116,00 people)
7.4% Egyptian (which is the equivalent of just under 74,000 people)
6.1% Filipino (which is the equivalent of just under 61,000 people)

In short, in Saudi Arabi they understand only two ethnicities: Saudi and Other. This cannot be said for the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait or Bahrain as they have sizable South Asian populations (36% in Qatar, 40% in Kuwait, 43% in Bahrain, the aforementioned 59% of UAE) so they don't see non-Arabs as Other, while Saudis see practically the entire population of the UAE as Other

 

My experience of working with many people in the GCC and spending a fair bit of time there a few years back is that the UAE, particularly Dubai, and KSA are very different. UAE is (comparatively) a much more open society and you can get away with some things in Dubai (‘normal’ Western things, so to speak) that you never would be able to do in KSA or to an extent, even in Abu Dhabi.

There are of course many cultural similarities between KSA and UAE but to draw a straight equivalence between them is wrong IMO. Dubai is a confusing place though because some of the laws around (to speak broadly) ‘decency’ seem to be randomly and selectively enforced. You go to any of the big hotels in and around the DIFC and it’s fairly easy to spot the hookers just like anywhere else in the world, for example, but there’s still no shortage of news stories about people getting arrested for doing things that are normal in Western society.

Politically I think the UAE is extremely problematic, particularly in the way they treat migrant workers. And the less said about KSA and MBS in particular the better. I would be abject if they tried to take over the club as they did Newcastle.

 

Congratulations to Man City on reaching their 1st champions league final in their 13 yr history

 

To stop teams like Chelsea and City ruining the game with their vast sums of money brought in from their billionaire owners and not money they have earned as football teams, we should have a system where you should limit the amount that can be spent on players- something to make it fairer financially. That in my opinion would be Financial Fair Play.

 

In which case I would refer to European which we do frequently because it shares certain cultural values. However I did refer to Saudi and not Saudi Arabia and Saudi's are part of both countries. Whichever way you look at it comparing UK to France or UAE to Saudi Arabia is not racism and further than that, it devalues what racism is. English people being derogatory about Scots and vice versa is often called racism by younger people. I think they are very mixed up. Racism is the disgusting business of discriminating against people because of their race. To compare that to criticising religion or culture is way off the mark. Religions and Culture are created by humans and are open to comment and opinion. Race on the other hand is not created by humans it is part of the natural world and therefore is not (or should not be) open to opinion. This is becoming increasingly confused in todays world, often by people with good intentions but until we get to the point where race is not a factor in decisions or anything else we will not have an equal society.
We established many years ago that race has no bearing on how you are as a human being, on your skills or your abilities it therefore should not be a factor in anything. Anymore than whether I have a big nose or red hair, or any other host of variations on the human theme.

 

I object to the owners of City, PSG, Chelsea, Leicester, Everton and others because they're all massive crooks with links to dictators.
It's nothing cultural, beyond the culture of corruption and ****baggery.
I also question how compromised the integrity of the game is, as these people do not play by the rules, in any sense.

 

Its not just Chelsea and City though. A lot of people act like Roman was the first one to give a club an unfair advantage financially when in fact it’s always been there.

Real Madrid literally translates to Royal Madrid ffs. If you’re gonna moan about Chelsea, PSG or City then at least be consistent and moan about pretty much every other big club too.

 

Well, Greater Manchester. About two miles from Moston, which would be classed as part of the city itself.
But near enough.
Not that I like Manchester these days or want to be associated with it - it's full of expensive high rise flats. Sorry apartments.

 

How long? 2 years?

 

Poor (kit) management by Pochettino.
The PSG away kit should have been white shirts + navy blue shorts.

< VAR my lord, VAR >

 

I have no doubt I would agree with you if I knew more about those owners, but I'll trust your judgement because I have better things to do than look up their CVs.
But I would also include the American owners of Arsenal & Liverpool, and Joe Lewis (but not Levy) all of whom are only money motivated.

 

He didn't get a penalty decision anyway so he didn't need the added problem of looking like Spurs.

 

PSG and City: Monarchies with appalling human rights records.
Chelsea and Everton: Russian oligarchs with criminal records and connections to Putin, who is a dictator in all but name.
Leicester: Extremely dubious businessmen who depend on their connections with various rulers down the years, including a military junta.

 

I don't LIKE that but you know what I mean. Thanks PNP

 

Ramos is back tonight.
To score a header, a penalty and then get sent off.

 

3 nasty Chav fouls in first 5 minutes, all should have been cards, two possibly red.
Repeat of last night - looks like it will be Citeh/ Chav final.

 

Wash your mouth out.
Real are destined to win this - they always are. However crap they are, they always come alive for this.

 

Utd have to play 4 games in 8 days this month.
Sympathy please - because if it was you, you’d be royally f***ed off