How will it work? You aren’t allowed to just spend money if you don’t make it any more. It’s against the FFP rules. Not exactly sure though.
You are bang on. At the moment newcastle turn a small profit ( whatever people think about Ashley that is a minor miracle), under FFP you are allowed to make some losses (a percentage of turnover I think, I've not looked into it as it seems premature to do so but will if it begins to feel relevant). To begin with it would likely be within FFP for us to spend more like 50-100m net rather than 20-30m we are looking at maximum at the moment. Long term the issue use where they could raise our revenue. Sponsorship is a clear one as Ashley has siphoned much of that off, merchandising is another one he had pushed towards sports direct coffers. If these can be reclaimed that is likely to be another 10m+ a season (perhaps a lot more, I genuinely don't know the going rate). The main challenge though is international profile. In 2004(ish) we had the fifth highest international revenues of English clubs ( ahead of tottenham, Everton, etc) now I think we're not in the top ten and the actual figure has remained pretty stagnant. Can they push us up to European places with a bit more spending too then open the door to more? I'm not convinced. Ashley has been entirely about cost cutting, no attempt ever to grow the business. I suspect new owners would look to do something there.
Thing is £100m buys you 2 or 3 decent players. Not even “top” players (or “top top” which is a term I hate! You can’t be top top of the league ffs!!) I don’t reckon anyone outside could compete with the top 4 spending less than £250m
I agree, anyone who thinks we could overnight be competing with them is deluded. Try and get 2-3 improvements each season and go for top ten and then hopefully Europe. Us and around 15 other teams! Chelsea and then Man City both got money at a time they could use it and are now simply much much bigger than us ( is very much argue that they were not previously). We won't be able to do that but maybe we can do well enough in the league to actually compete in a cup!
While N/C have been relegated under Ashley, he always kept the players to ensure an instant return. While N/C Fans won't acknowledge it, he is pretty unique in this respect. Yet he is despised by most of them. The Hall & Shephard Families though took millions out of the Club in Directors Fee's and dividends, all while the Club rarely made even a small profit. The left with bulging pockets and Ashley, who, according to the Press at the time, foolishly failed to do 'due diligence' picked up the huge borrowing and kept the club going. He MAY be going to get back most of the money he spent but he isn't going to get any reward for the abuse he suffered along the way. This all contrasts with the respect that has been and continues to be paid to the previous regime. As for the potential new owner, it will be interesting. Money and FFP shouldn't be a problem. Man City get their ££'s from sponsorship of a national Airline. Saudi Arabia has a massive Oil Company that could make Man City's income look like chicken feed. The only downside for the N/C Fans that I can see is that the new owner may not be over fond of criticism.
After the media hysteria over PDC having a soft spot for Mussolini I can't wait for the avalanche of criticism over the Saudis
OK I'll start with these... Here are ten ways Saudi Arabia is violating its citizens’ human rights: 1. Torture is used as a punishment Courts in Saudi Arabia continue to sentence people to be punished by torture for many offences, often following unfair trials. Corporal punishment like flogging, for example, is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment that has no place in the justice system. Besides Raif, in the past two years the human rights defenders Mikhlif bin Daham al-Shammari and Omar al-Sa’id were sentenced to 200 and 300 lashes respectively, and Filipino domestic worker Ruth Cosrojas was sentenced to 300. There are other forms of torture issued as punishment: Saudi authorities have carried out amputations, including ‘cross amputations’ (where the opposite hand and foot are removed) on people found guilty of robbery. 2. Executions are on the increase Saudi Arabia is among the world’s top executioners, with dozens of people being executed by the state every year, many of them in public beheadings. So far this year Saudi Arabia has executed 40 people – almost four times as many as the same period last year. 3. No free speech Besides Raif Badawi, dozens more outspoken activists remain behind bars, simply for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly. In the last two years, all of Saudi Arabia’s prominent and independent human rights defenders have been imprisoned, threatened into silence, or fled the country. The authorities have targeted the small but vocal community of human rights defenders, including by using anti-terrorism laws to suppress their peaceful actions to expose and address human rights violations. 4. No protests Going to a public gathering, including a demonstration, is a criminal act, under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those who defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as ‘inciting people against the authorities’. 5. Women are widely discriminated against Women and girls remain subject to discrimination in law and practice, with laws that ensure they are subordinate citizens to men - particularly in relation to family matters such as marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance. Women who supported a campaign against a ban on women drivers face the threat of arrest and other harassment and intimidation. 6. Torture in police custody is common Former detainees, trial defendants and others have told us that the security forces frequently use torture in detention, and that those responsible are never brought to justice. 7. You can be detained and arrested with no good reason Scores of people have been arrested and detained in pre-trial detention for six months or more, which breaches the Kingdom’s own criminal codes. Detainees are frequently held incommunicado during their interrogation and denied access to their lawyers. Some human rights activists have been detained without charge or trial for more than two years. 8. Religious discrimination is rife Members of the Kingdom’s Shi’a minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face entrenched discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Shi’a activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. 9. Migrant workers have been deported en masse According to the Interior Ministry, a crackdown on irregular foreign migrant workers in November 2013 led to the deportation of more than 370,000 people. Some 18,000 were still being detained last March. Thousands of people were summarily returned to Somalia, Yemen or other states where they could face human rights abuses on return. 10. Human rights organisations banned https://www.amnesty.org.uk/saudi-arabia-human-rights-raif-badawi-king-salman
Yes but PDC upset the Durham Miners so that makes them equal ... ... I'm sure the local media will be equally as even handed in their reporting.
While with every word is no doubt correct, you have missed the point that you are applying Western, Christian values to a Middle Eastern Islamic Country. They have a perfect right to follow their religion, including the Laws laid down in their Holy Book in their own Country. They have a right to their own rules and follow their own social Laws in their own Country. We have no more right to insist that they follow our Laws than they have to insist that we follow theirs. Remember that Islam was started about 1400 years ago. This puts it 600 years or so behind Christianity in terms of it's social development. Look at what Christian Europe was doing 600 years ago!! Does the Shia and Sunni dispute not mirror the Catholic Protestant wars of the Middle Ages? Indeed you could make the argument that Islam was a peaceable Religion until the brutality of the Christian Crusades was unleashed against them. You may well believe that about a quarter of the Worlds population that follow Islam are wrong, but that's their right. They may well believe that the 35% or so of the Worlds population which is Christian are wrong. Indeed, some believe that both are wrong. The need for mankind to have a religion is deep seated. Whether this is a benefit or a curse is an unwinnable debate.
However the vast majority of that list has nothing to do with religion and more to do with the corrupt governing regime. Having spent some time working there - it is the last place on earth I would visit again.
Indeed you could make the argument that Islam was a peaceable Religion until the brutality of the Christian Crusades was unleashed against them. bollocks the first crusade was to take back Jerusalem AFTER every man woman and child was slaughtered in the open city, when the city was taken back the christians did the same to what the muslims had done , karma is a bitch
Out of respect for my new Arab overlords, I shall go and behead an unruly journalist Watch this take over go tits up. I am just waiting for something to crop up and for fat Ash to jump out of a box and yell BAZINGA!
Hi M R Sorry to dispute your post - but as I understand it Jerusalem was controlled differing countries/caliphates etc for hundreds of years all of whom were muslim. When the first crusade took Jerusalem they slaughtered both Jew & Muslim alike. The Crusades were in fact much like today -an expanding Christian Europe looked with great fear as Islam was expanding with alarming speed into Southern Europe. Any earlier seiges and wars to take Jerusalem before the 1st Crusade was basically One musim force ousting another.
