Isn’t that just the very definition of sportswashing. But a football club, get an army of gullible idiots willing to defend the indefensible, engage in stupid whataboutery, and deny the obvious.
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Saudi’s been quite responsible for most of the islamic terorrism etc etc both with indoctrination as well as funding the terrorists etc. But they just get a clean slate because of oil and USA.
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Genuinely don’t understand what the US even gets out of that relationship with Saudi Arabia… It’s more the US oligarch-equivalents.
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They get to dictate (via their proxies in the kingdom of Saud) on what to propagate etc etc. It definitely helped them in the cold war against the soviets in Afghanistan etc when they sent quite a lot of Saudi Indoctrinated terrorists to fight the evil soviets.
Ofcourse, the same terrorists then became the Taliban and Al Qaida and bit them back in the arse again, but who cares about that inconvenient bit of history
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Because there is the pretense of it being a defensive war (it isnt, at least not the way the Saudi’s are conducting it), but he argument provides political cover in a way no one is willing to pretend is true of the Russian operation. There is also a meaningful difference in what the situation shatters in terms of the world order, and while it sucks that it means some areas can be bombed and it changes nothing about the wider world wide situation, it’s pretty clear to see how there is a difference.
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Who gives a shit about “irreparable damage that would prevent it from competing”. This is capitalism, deal with it.
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Superficially yes, but apart from picking and choosing who you favour, and the idea that the world order should be fixed, there isn’t a practical difference. There are both larger neighbours who are aggressing against a government they perceive as non-submissive to them, often conducting brutal strikes in the name of “self-defence”.
Both immoral and thoroughly wrong. Main difference is the amount of influence bought and that Russia is the harder to turn a blind eye to.
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Right. That is why is the difference is real and not superficial.
As if its not bad enough being Chelskis kit man now he has to go to Sports Direct
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Concern that restrictions on things like ticket sales will propel the club towards financial ruin.
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Thats obvs BS
I’m sure the last thing the people of Ukraine would want is for Chelsea FC to be unable to compete in financial and sporting terms.
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@Kopstar and whoever is knowledgeable about the issue, isn’t the governments prohibited from interfering with matters of football in their respective countries?
It’s a good question, but I think the difference is the line is for governments to not get involved in running of the authorities, rather than preventing the authorities acting politically.
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Why should govt be mindful of keeping Chelsea competing? They didn’t ask Chelsea to make a deal with the devil to then be able to out compete everyone. They’ve reaped the rewards of ill gotten gains for two decades now and it’s time to pay the piper.
Let them rot.
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But tell me if there has been a better season if we win the quadruple, Everton get relegated and Chelsea takes a nose dive in form and morale? I can’t think of a better one
Oh and fuck Chelski. Hope it ruins them
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I’m as happy as anyone for the degree of hardship this gives Chelsea.
I’m not completely celebrating yet though. Before Abramovich they were nobodies. Bates and Harding were trying to make them something, but basically they had a long way to go to threaten the top. At present they are European and World Champions, and a fixture in the top four, winning their fair share of trophies along the way. They are a global team now, and having benefitted from a massive influx of dirty money, they are ‘self-sufficient.’
Before I get too excited about their fall, I want to actually see it happen first. I’m far from convinced that this is going to hinder them too much.
They have a number of people competing to buy the club, and all of them will revel in the mandate to stabilize the situation and be seen as some sort of savior, for a situation that doesn’t exactly look like it needs saving just yet.
I hope they slide. I hope their future ambition will extend to this generation’s equivalent of John Bumstead and Kerry Dixon. I hope their future glory days will be something like a good FA Cup run, maybe even to the semi final.
But there’s a long way to go before they slide to anywhere close to where they were pre Abramovich.
And even if they do slide that far, it will just make Newcastle’s job that bit easier to set themselves up in the top four.
/bahhumbug!
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No, but Abramovic wasnt seen as the devil back then.
For football fans wanting to have a kit without ugly sponsors, damn, this is a great way for Chelsea to get new fans for nice clean kit. 