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From Madrid's official site:

Official Announcement: Bellingham
14/06/2023

Real Madrid C. F. and Borussia Dortmund have reached an agreement for the transfer of the player Jude Bellingham, who will be contracted to our club for the next six seasons.

Jude Bellingham will be unveiled as a new Real Madrid player tomorrow, Thursday 15 June, at 12:00 noon at Real Madrid City.

Following this, Jude Bellingham will speak to the media.
 
PleaseNotPoll said:
Bordeaux have missed out on promotion to Ligue 1 after one of their fans pushed a rival player.
They needed to win and for other results to go their way on the final day.
They went behind to Rodez and the match was abandoned after the following incident:
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The player claimed to have a concussion and was treated on the pitch for 20 minutes.
He was then taken to hospital. Something tells me he was ok after that...
Rodez avoided relegation with the 3 points that they were awarded.

The fan was out of order, obviously. He should be banned and prosecuted.
It doesn't sit well with me that Rodez clearly milked it and faked an injury to steal points.
How is this substantially worse than what West Ham did against Fiorentina, for example?
I'd suggest that the opposite is true, if anything.
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Add to that how, from next season, Ligue 1 will be 18 teams instead of 20, meaning the relegation playoff between the team in 18th in Ligue 1 and the team who finished 3rd in Ligue 2 was dropped from the schedule

The LFP are going to have a few angry phone calls, that's for sure...
 
PleaseNotPoll said:
From Madrid's official site:

Official Announcement: Bellingham
14/06/2023

Real Madrid C. F. and Borussia Dortmund have reached an agreement for the transfer of the player Jude Bellingham, who will be contracted to our club for the next six seasons.

Jude Bellingham will be unveiled as a new Real Madrid player tomorrow, Thursday 15 June, at 12:00 noon at Real Madrid City.

Following this, Jude Bellingham will speak to the media.
Click to expand...
Bellingham has also signed for Sunderland.
 
Looks as though the Qataris will be imminently taking ownership of Manchester United.

So the Qataris will be owning both PSG and Man Utd I'm guessing? Totally nothing wrong with that at all.

Qataris own Man Utd, Saudis own Newcastle and UAE own Man City. Fabulous. Great to see that sportswashing is being encouraged and increased in the Premier League <ok>
 
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BrunelGunner said:
Looks as though the Qataris will be imminently taking ownership of Manchester United.

So the Qataris will be owning both PSG and Man Utd I'm guessing? Totally nothing wrong with that at all.

Qataris own Man Utd, Saudis own Newcastle and UAE own Man City. Fabulous. Great to see that sportswashing is being encouraged and increased in the Premier League <ok>
Click to expand...
Glad that there's none of that going on at... The Emirates. <whistle>
 
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BrunelGunner said:
Looks as though the Qataris will be imminently taking ownership of Manchester United.

So the Qataris will be owning both PSG and Man Utd I'm guessing? Totally nothing wrong with that at all.

Qataris own Man Utd, Saudis own Newcastle and UAE own Man City. Fabulous. Great to see that sportswashing is being encouraged and increased in the Premier League <ok>
Click to expand...

It's also very astute business sense. All the gulf states are aware that the oil wealth won't last forever. As the world and especially their main markets in the West turn to sustainable energy, reliance on fossil fuels will likely drop and with it so will their wealth.

Pivoting into western sports is a logical and foolproof investment. Yes, buying a club like United will cost billions but a) currently that is peanuts to them and b) if the current trajectory of growth continues it won't be long before a football club is valued at £10billion, especially if the US market is finally conquered.
 
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Citizen Kane. said:
It's also very astute business sense. All the gulf states are aware that the oil wealth won't last forever. As the world and especially their main markets in the West turn to sustainable energy, reliance on fossil fuels will likely drop and with it so will their wealth.

Pivoting into western sports is a logical and foolproof investment. Yes, buying a club like United will cost billions but a) currently that is peanuts to them and b) if the current trajectory of growth continues it won't be long before a football club is valued at £10billion, especially if the US market is finally conquered.
Click to expand...
So it's a matter of time until the Yanks invade Old Trafford, then? Sounds fair.
 
Citizen Kane. said:
It's also very astute business sense. All the gulf states are aware that the oil wealth won't last forever. As the world and especially their main markets in the West turn to sustainable energy, reliance on fossil fuels will likely drop and with it so will their wealth.

Pivoting into western sports is a logical and foolproof investment. Yes, buying a club like United will cost billions but a) currently that is peanuts to them and b) if the current trajectory of growth continues it won't be long before a football club is valued at £10billion, especially if the US market is finally conquered.
Click to expand...

Oil money in sports is about trying to white-wash
the reputation overseas of the regime buying in.
Nothing more, northing less.
 
Citizen Kane. said:
It's also very astute business sense. All the gulf states are aware that the oil wealth won't last forever. As the world and especially their main markets in the West turn to sustainable energy, reliance on fossil fuels will likely drop and with it so will their wealth.

Pivoting into western sports is a logical and foolproof investment. Yes, buying a club like United will cost billions but a) currently that is peanuts to them and b) if the current trajectory of growth continues it won't be long before a football club is valued at £10billion, especially if the US market is finally conquered.
Click to expand...
In the case of Saudi money it goes a little (possibly a lot) further than that, because ever since bin Salman became Crown Prince he has been performing a major PR blitz to create a personality cult for himself - but not in Saudi Arabia, but overseas

I certainly remember how, back in March of 2018, there was a sudden PR blitz where posters of him were suddenly erected across London the week before he made an official trip, plus vans driving around so motorists could be stuck in a traffic jams with bin Salman staring into their souls in a way that is Definitely Not Creepy
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On top of that, not only were there the aforementioned posters, but there was a blitz of ads in the press to promote bin Salman which not only saw ads promoting him in newspapers, but also led to the unintended but utterly hilarious juxtaposition of a Grauniad article critiquing the red carpet being rolled out for him - with an ad promoting him right next to it...

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Also in 2018, that's where the sportswashing began, starting with WWE hosting events in Saudi Arabia in April and November of that year, while the Race of Champions was staged there in February - and both were unintentionally hilarious, as for the first WWE show bin Salman asked for The Ultimate Warrior and Yokozuna to appear, oblivious to the fact they had been dead for four and eighteen years respectively when he made the suggestion (plus that Mansoor guy who only seems to compete at the Saudi shows) while the Race of Champions was staged in such a way that the Saudi team would qualify for the knockouts...only to get completely smoked once they got there

There's definitely something more than just trying to whitewash the image of Saudi Arabia going on with bin Salman, especially when consider he not only had his name plastered on the Saudi football league for a few seasons but a couple of weeks ago he bought stakes in four clubs in the Saudi league, so if Sean Longstaff suddenly signs for one of those clubs and is loaned back for two seasons to try and beat FFP rules try to act surprised...
 
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humanbeingincroydon said:
Chelsea are reportedly selling Mateo Kovacic to The Sheikh Mansour Team and kai Havertz to Arsenal

Looking forward to pundits calling them a selling club...
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I wonder if it's worth us giving Kalvin Phillips the chance to reignite his career. With Rodri and Kovacic there, he won't get a look in.
 
Citizen Kane. said:
I wonder if it's worth us giving Kalvin Phillips the chance to reignite his career. With Rodri and Kovacic there, he won't get a look in.
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Kovacic is likely replacing Gundogan in the XI more so than being an understudy to Rodri so I doubt Phillip’s situation will actually change much, he’ll still get the occasional 5 minute cameo, the lucky sod.
 
Dier Hard said:
Kovacic is likely replacing Gundogan in the XI more so than being an understudy to Rodri so I doubt Phillip’s situation will actually change much, he’ll still get the occasional 5 minute cameo, the lucky sod.
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I don’t especially rate Phillips, but I think the only way he leaves is if City somehow gazump Arsenal in the race for Rice. It’s unlikely though, although there are rumours they’re sniffing around. But consensus seems to be that Rice wants to stay in London.
 
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