Off Topic Other Stuff (anything you want to share)

Premiership Owners.

Newcastle on the verge of being owned by Saudi Arabian.....leaving only two or three clubs in our top league who could be seen as English/Maybe ?

.....and it is still seen as an English League.....which of course has a high percentage of non-English players.

Arsenal.....USA.
Aston Villa.....Egypt/USA
Brentford.....British/Gambling firms
Brighton.....Bloom... British Entepreneur
Burnley.....Alk Capital...USA
Chelsea.....Abramovich...Russia
C Palace.....Eng/ USA
Everton.....British Iranian/British
Leeds.....Italian/USA
Leicester.....Thailand
Liverpool.....USA
Man C.....Emirates
Man U.....USA
Newcastle.....Saudi Arabian......this will make them one of the richest Club in the world.
Norwich.....Eng/Welsh
Southampton.....China 80%/Swiss 20%
Spurs.....English ?
Watford.....Italian
West Ham.....Welsh 51%/English 35%/USA 10%
Wolves.....China

By the way...Plymouth Argyle is seen as USA 97%.....because Simon Hallett took out American citizenship.

 

He was in favour of Brexit too, so hardly a hostile witness. I heard him on Radio 4 this morning: he said he supported Brexit to gain control of our borders and to relax regulation. He mentioned relaxing environmental laws specifically but I'm not sure how many would support that.

He then said controlling borders had NOT meant slamming the door on all immigration though and that the current situation was bidding up wages, which would have to be passed on to consumers, but was still causing supply shortages.

 

Amnesty International has urged the Premier League to change its owners and directors test.....to address "human rights issues" amid the Saudi Arabian takeover on Newcastle United.

BBC Sports News.....07/10/2021.

 

Not confined to football: F1 races in Turkey this weekend and is set to go to Qatar for the final race. For all the talk of inclusivity, petro-dollars talk louder.

 

I have little doubt the same things apply to all of the top leagues throughout Europe with dodgy people involved. The same thing also applies to probably most sports. If there is prestige involved and shed loads of money then the dodgy brigade will be sucked in. Lets face it we even had some in the Championship who soon ran away when the money wasn't forthcoming. I can understand the Newcastle fans wanting shot of Ashley but replacing him with Arab money may end up a disappointment for them anyway. I used to say that the one thing I wanted was to see Argyle in the top league for one season before I died. I have to say that I no longer have that aspiration for us. I don't want to see my home town club taken away from the supporters and if that means staying in the lower reaches then so be it. You can see the attitude of the Governing bodies of various sports by where they stage their main events. The Olympic Committee are as bad as FIFA. It's money that counts not Human Rights.

 

Plenty pictures of the geordie nation dressed up as Arabs outside of St James' Park (that's the real one...not the one just up the road) celebrating the end of Mike Ashley's reign in charge.

You do get the feeling that these excited geordies have maybe sold their souls to the big buck or is it the big Saudi Riyal.

 

We've now got three dirty money teams: Chelsea, Manchester City and Newcastle. I'm rooting for Man U and Liverpool!

 

The Man U two are not exactly upright characters are they. They may not stone people to death but they are not exactly squeaky with money especially when it's not originally theirs.

 

Well the Glazers are the sort of corporate people I recognise and the structure they own United through is not unusual, no matter what their fans may think. The gearing may be high but certainly not unheard of when venture capital is involved.

We're extremely lucky to have an owner willing to finance the club by putting a very large sum of his own personal money at risk but there aren't many who could do that with a club of Manchester United's size.

The reason I don't object to the Glazers is that their capital structure is a relatively normal commercial one and forces them to run the club as a business.

What the fans seems to want is the Chelsea/Man City/Newcastle model in which cash comes from crooked privatisation of Russian state assets in the case of Chelsea, petro-dollars sneaked in by bogus sponsorship deals in the case of Man City and goodness knows what now at Newcastle, There is none of the financial discipline you'd normally see in a business that size. They circumvent the Fair Play regulations and inflate the transfer market by playing obscene sums for players to the detriment of other clubs. See also Paris Ste Germain.

These latter arrangements are very much at the whim of powerful individuals who are just as likely to lose interest as maintain their support. By comparison, Manchester United's capital structure looks relatively safe.

 

Didn't the Glazers buy Man U and put the debt on the club to pay it.....they have recently sold some of the club and of course the money has gone straight into their account ?

 

And that Plym was my point. The Brent way of finanace which is spend anyone elses money but your own and then walk away with a bank balance full for your troubles.

 

But all businesses have debt! Must have debt in fact.

Loan capital costs less than equity capital (shares) because the equity shareholders bear the ultimate risk of losing their money. The lenders usually have charge over the business assets so if the business goes bust, they can recover at least some of their investment. Taking the added risk means shareholders get paid more in dividends than the lenders do in interest.

Also, interest paid is deductible for tax as a business cost whereas dividends aren't, as they are a distribution of profit, not a cost.

If you don't have loan capital, your business is inefficient from the first moment you start it up!

Now, before you ask, that doesn't apply to PAFC because we have an owner who is not only willing to put all his money at 100% risk but doesn't get any income from the investment either, so the cost of capital and Corporation Tax arguments are irrelevant until the unlikely situation where PAFC makes significant profits.

Even then, Simon Hallett might not draw any dividends until after investments in the team, the ground, the training facilities, the Academy etc etc had been paid for.

 

Been watching "A Question of Sport" this afternoon....Oh dear oh dear....turned a winner into a total flop.

 

But it's more inclusive Plym and suitable for the yoof market. Look how they've improved Doctor Who, down from 8 to 10m to 5 to 7m. Wait until we get a transgender 007.

 

I used to be keen on strictly in past times....but there are changes in recent years that I cannot go along with....I shall not explain because it will show my anti political correctness up.

Rainbow colours are the way ahead....yet a women who had a necklace with a cross on it....had to be sacked because her faith was not allowed to be shown.

 

Lovely warm sunny October day today.....with all the garages around here having petrol and no queues....not even the odd moran with lots of plastic containers......and best of all Mrs Plym and myself have had our Covid-19 Booster jab.....the Civic Centre had eight jab cubicles in use.....and there was only half a dozen of us oldies there at that moment.

Also had received an e-mail from Guys Hospital inviting us back there for a Booster jab....easier to go local this time.

 

For my sins I decided to watch the England match tonight. That's another couple of hours I won't get back. Thought we were very poor. We spent more time passing the ball across the back line and back again than we did passing it forward. Very slow very deliberate stuff and we allowed Hungary to press us far too easily. Kane poor. Sterling poor. A few others a bit average at best.

 

Hungary came with a plan and looked much more like the side that drew with Germany and France in the Euros.

However, we were poor and it shows we can't play with only one holding midfield player right now. Kelvin Phillips, who's been a star in recent games, wasn't available due to injury and perhaps Southgate should have started Henderson or Ward-Prowse alongside Declan Rice. There are so many competitive internationals at the moment there haven't been any "pointless" friendlies to try these things out in and that will only get worse if FIFA get their wish of a World Cup every two years, God forbid. Personally, I much prefer the Euros without all the minnows although Brazil and Argentina could be granted temporary visas as Europeans for the duration of the tournament.

Sterling and Kane were shadows of their recent selves, both being unsettled at their clubs. Kane should have been hauled off at half time but then again, we don't have Calvin Lewin available.

 

Sod England

 

WHAT!!!!!!!

You must now stand in the corner in a bin and sing God Save the Queen backwards three times. How very dare you sir.