The three clubs promoted to the Premier League last season (Fulham, Bournemouth and Forest) lost £174,500,000 between them despite two of them receiving parachute payments
Reading deducted 6 points for not sticking to financial plan. This leaves them just a point above the drop zone.
Bad night for their Goal difference! Think Forest , Southampton and Bournemouth will go down though .
A brief foray into the area between politics and football as the Athletic, a subscription-only football website, has obtained government emails that showed the possible failure of a Saudi Arabian takeover of Newcastle United was flagged as an “immediate risk” to UK-Saudi relations [paywall]. The website’s reporter Adam Crafton has 59-pages of emails between government officials that shows the Foreign Office trying to boost the image of Saudi Arabia despite concerns about human rights abuses as the Premier League considered whether to approve the deal. The article claims the Department for International Trade (DIT) was prepared to send a PR offer, to aide the takeover process. The UK and Saudi Arabia have a longstanding trading agreement, including the sale of British-made arms. Concerns have been raised about their use in the war in Yemen. Emails between government ministers and civil servants in departments including Downing Street, and the British ambassador to Saudi Arabia show a level of interest in the deal, including the proposal of a “senior” government interlocutor to “impress [her majesty’s government] interests with the Premier League as they finalise their consideration of the Newcastle United takeover”. The Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters, has said that there was “no pressure” applied by the government during the process. It has previously been claimed that the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, received text messages from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the head of the Saudi Public Investment Fund that eventually bought Newcastle, in which he warned there may be economic consequences for Britain if the Premier League resisted the takeover. Johnson denied any government involvement when asked about the deal in parliament. The full article is worth a read for more details about the level of government interest and involvement. A spokesperson for Johnson declined to comment to the Athletic.
A few years ago, when the Saudis were bombing the crap out of the Yemenis on a daily basis, I fired off a few questions to my MP about how how the UK could justify issuing export licenses permitting the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia. This is part of the reply I received from Graham Stuart MP - the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exports - “It is never possible to be certain what an item licensed for export from the UK will be used for once exported. This is why we rigorously examine every application on a case-by-case basis against the Consolidated Criteria - which provide a thorough risk assessment framework for assessing export licence applications and require us to think hard about the impact of providing equipment and its capabilities. These are not decisions we take lightly. We can and do respond quickly to changing International situations and are able to review, suspend to revoke licences as necessary when circumstances require.” I was tempted to respond that my request was about the licence to sell £7.5 billion worth of aircraft, helicopters, bombs, missiles and grenades - and how could they could possibly not see that what was being licenced was being used against the Yemenis and therefore surely fell into the category of ‘when circumstances require’. In the end I gave up, reasoning that I would simply receive another obfuscation for a reply.
Spurs fans and players must feel very lucky today ! Brighton should have had at least two penalties given.
Liverpool v Arsenal match is getting a bit feisty, with Arsenal players falling over at the slightest touch - even the linesman has joined in by elbowing Robertson in the jaw. Or so Robertson claims. Arsenal deserve their lead though
I know that VAR was also at fault, but why is Stuart Attwell still being allowed to referee in the Premier League? He has a long history of incompetence going back to the famous Reading ghost goal against Watford in 2008 and when he was suspended from the Select Group Referees in 2012. He continues to be a poor referee.
Did look a bit dodgy tbh - might get into trouble. Liverpool now level so will Arsenal hold on for a point ? Been a real game of 2 halves .
Yes, he continues to be a poor referee, but the problem is that there are many more like him. VAR was introduced to help them but I'd say it hasn't really - it's making mistakes and the refs are still making them. We may as well try to go back to the days when refs were 'only human' and mistakes were expected and accepted. After all, that's how players are viewed - not one of them is immune to mistake making.
