Have to say, I had no idea UEFA was run from the Middle East!!
https://backpagefootball.com/when-di...usiness/70376/
“In 1993, for the first time since the competition was started, UEFA tweaked the format for the European Cup, renaming it the European Champions League. Pressure was growing from the elite European clubs on the European governing body to allow more than one competitor from each country to enter the competition.”
I can’t recall. Was it an official approach to the player or were there suggestions of “tapping up”?
https://www.theguardian.com/football...irgil-van-dijk
Nice attempt at deflection but show me where Saudi Arabia has been declared a terrorist state and by which nations.
Not where someone claims to speak for all using the royal “we” or someone who is desperate to drum up support for themselves to deflect from the fact they have no idea what they are on about, have an unhealthy obsession with a rival club (that would be you)
I know this may be hard for you to grasp but I (and if you care to look at this thread quite a few people) couldn’t care less about Celtic no matter how much you try and shoe horn them into the conversation.
Rogers was a former Liverpool manager, Sterling was a former Liverpool player. I know it’s a tough one to grasp but neither of these things have anything to do with Celtic (or Saudi Arabia for that matter)
FFS
Pretty sure it was demonstrated to you before that the Saudis had performed an extra judicial execution of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi
in Istanbul.
That's the same shit that Putin has carried out in the UK.
Are you ok with this?
What are you defining as a terrorist state?
Last edited by Hood; 18th June 2023 at 03:50.
Drag him from Liverpool ?
Nope , Sterling wanted to leave Liverpool . Both United and Chelsea submitted bids but he wanted City . His wages doubled (I think) from what Liverpool were offering but this is a regular occurrence, no ? Sterling acted professionally throughout the transfer saga and helped Liverpool get a significant fee .
Integral in the early financial doping ??
What does this actually mean ? It makes no sense whatsoever .
City pay Liverpool £49 million and that’s financial doping ?
Last edited by thegoat; 18th June 2023 at 07:22.
“The circumstances of Mr Khashoggi’s death have led to numerous theories and allegations, but none alters the responsibility of the Saudi Arabia State. Saudi state agents, 15 of them, acted under cover of their official status and used state means to execute Mr. Khashoggi. His killing was the result of elaborate planning involving extensive coordination and significant human and financial resources. It was overseen, planned and endorsed by high-level officials. It was premeditated.”
Agnes Callamard, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary killings
The EU "condemns the Saudi authorities’ ongoing harassment of human rights defenders, activist lawyers, journalists, clerics, writers and bloggers both within and outside the country, which undermines the credibility of the reform process in Saudi Arabia; insists that the Saudi authorities take the necessary steps to allow everyone to exercise their rights freely without any judicial harassment or any other reprisals, such as threats to their families; calls on the Saudi authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all human rights defenders and other prisoners of conscience detained and sentenced for merely exercising their right to freedom of expression and carrying out their peaceful human rights work."
US report ODNI: We assess that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. We base this assessment on the Crown Prince's control of decisionmaking in the Kingdom, the direct involvement of a key adviser and members of Muhammad bin Salman's protective detail in the operation, and the Crown Prince's support for using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi. Since 2017, the Crown Prince has had absolute control of the Kingdom's security and intelligence organizations, making it highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince's authorization.
US State Department: To start, the U.S. Department of State has taken action pursuant to the Khashoggi Ban to impose visa restrictions on 76 Saudi individuals believed to have been engaged in threatening dissidents overseas, including but not limited to the Khashoggi killing.
Someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.
I will ask you again, show me where Saudi Arabia have been designated as a terrorist state and by who, not “Your opinion” that’s irrelevant.
I edited out your swearing (you know G&D rules) now bringing Russia into it I see (but this is not politics right? G&D)
You will be saying Putin and the Saudi royal family are all Rangers fans next.
Wait until we put a bid in for Salah ;)
You’ll obviously know a lot more about the Liverpool side of the deal but I think I recall the animosity stemmed from his agent at the time .
I don’t recall Raheem actually making noises or demanding to be let go, ( thinking on, didn’t he ask not to go on the pre season tour?) behaving quite well throughout. I think his decision was borne out by the trophies he did win even though he missed out on the Chumps League.
I know the media went to town on him and quite frankly some of the abuse dished out to him at 90% of football grounds afterwards because of this coverage was shocking.
Luckily for Raheem , City went and bought Grealish to take the abuse instead.
Anyway, Im still trying to come up with a player that City took from a rival to make them weaker , but doesn’t feature for the team .
Tru dat, I wonder why they all stop short of saying so?
Just like Teresa May, who refused to publish the report that identified Saudi Arabia as a prolific sponsor of international Islamist terrorism - coincidently only a few weeks after she received honours from their king.
Or the US, where then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Saudi Arabia "a critical source of terrorist funding", yet the Obama administration - just like their predecessors and successors - stopped short of adding them to the State Department list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.
Someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.
I can’t remember if Sterling wanted to leave or not.
I remember thinking the 45m was great money for him though. I was never a fan of his thought he was often very poor.
I also despised the fact he couldn’t strike a ball properly and often just over ran it.
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Sterling always has and always will divide opinion.
His ability shouldn’t be in doubt but he does make poor decisions at times . In his time at City it never cost us as there were always other chances to come . He did miss a few but he never ever went into hiding . His attitude was always spot on . He will give the same effort for Chelsea and I truly hope it works out for him there too.
The abuse he got all over the country was sickening , culminating in the physical assault outside Citys training ground by a halfwit. It is to Raheems testimony that he actually played in a game a couple of hours after the attack.
He will always get my backing as a great footballer and a bloody good human being .
Sick of watching knock out games and finals ending 0-0 followed by a pointless extra time and ends with penalties.
Why not cut all the shit and just start the game with penalties. Less injuries, crowd would be home earlier, more exciting.
My campaign to be the next FIFA president didn’t go well…
Seems like Arsenal will sell Xhaka, Partey, Balogun, Smith-Rowe, Tierney, Sambi Lokonga, Pepe and Holding. Expected fees raised from those players around £180m.
Seems like the Rice and Havertz deals are close, they are looking at Romeo Lavia from Southampton and Camavinga from Real Madrid as well. An approach was apparently made to Bayern for Jamal Musiala but Bayern were not keen to sell. Still interest in Caicedo despite some media reports to the contrary.
PSG approached Arteta re the managerial vacancy as well.
Jesus .
Righto , who else was in for him ? He was brought in to work alongside /complement Rodri at the base of the midfield .
Pep brought him in with a specific sharing role in mind . He wasn’t to know that Phillips would be injured early on in his City career . He then saw his arse when the player came back from the World Cup overweight . He’s been on and off the bench in fits and starts for a reason . The drop off from Rodri was huge at the minute and to take a chance on Phillips at the time would’ve been suicidal . Pep has come out numerous times to give Kalvin his backing and support him if he wants to stay next season ( which Phillips does , apparently)
He will be given more chances next season .
I hope this answers your question but feel free to offer another player the cheating t@@ts have taken to stop other teams strengthening.
Especially after we weakened Arsenal by selling them Jesus and Zinchenko and Chelsea with Sterling .
Brendan Rodgers confirmed back at Celtic
Would have preferred to keep Ange but happy with Rodgers .
Well it didn't take long for this new 2023/2024 thread to turn into a bitching fest.
Would it really be that hard for grown men to keep it to footballing matters and less blatant tribal outbursts.
Gary O'Neil sacked by Bournemouth.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65951241
Replaced by Andoni Iraola, what's the betting O'Neils back by the New Year.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65954183