Tevez and mascherano to west ham??

[dirty_sanchez]

Yes he was.

[Tom]

Ok, but I don't see how that really links Portsmouth to Chelsea. All he's really done is gone "hey, if you want to buy a club, try Portsmouth...". That's pretty much it. Ok, he brokered a deal for one player, but maybe that was because Pompey actually really wanted him? I think everyone is maybe being a bit cynical.

Zahavi is involved in MSI. I don't think it's cynical, to me it looks like a group of like-minded and funded venture capitalists deciding to make a killing out of the premiership. That is, they are using our game as a kind of plaything - collatoral for their for various financial and political purposes. It's just a conicidense that they all know each other and have similar backgrounds I suppose.....

[Tom]

From today's guardian:

Caborn lobbies DTI to crack down on secret investors

Paul Kelso
Tuesday September 5, 2006
The Guardian

The sports minister, Richard Caborn, is lobbying government departments including the Department of Trade and Industry to support a change in European legislation in an attempt to crack down on secretive investors taking stakes in English football clubs.

West Ham United have opened takeover talks with Kia Joorabchian, the Iranian-British entrepreneur behind the transfer of the Argentina internationals Carlos Tévez and Javier Mascherano, who is believed to be the front man for a number of Middle Eastern investors interested in taking a stake in a Premiership club.

Article continues
Joorabchian is also close to the exiled Russian media oligarch, Boris Berezovsky, and the Georgian businessman, Badri Patarkatsishvili, prompting speculation, denied by both men, that they are behind the bid to make West Ham the third Premiership club to be funded by cash from the former Soviet Union.

Concern about the relative lack of transparency surrounding Joorabchian's financial backers has re-awakened concern at the Department of Culture Media and Sport and the European governing body, Uefa, about football's vulnerability to anonymous investors.

A review of European football, commissioned by Caborn during the UK's presidency of the European Union, recommended that football should be subject to additional regulation to ensure that secret investors or beneficiaries of football clubs are exposed.

Officially the British government's position is that the review's recommendations are still being considered, but behind the scenes Caborn and officials at DCMS are working on other Whitehall departments, including the DTI and the Treasury, to bring them into line behind a unified government policy.

Once the government has a unified position the focus will turn to the European Commission, where work on a white paper on European Sport is already under way. Caborn and Uefa want to see greater transparency than is required by UK legislation. The DTI is the key department as any changes to business regulation in football would be hugely controversial.

The Premier League insists that its own rules on disclosure and the fitness of directors to serve on football club boards are sufficient. Under the rules, Alex Gaydamak was permitted to become a director of Portsmouth. Reports suggested his father, Arcadi Gaydamak, the subject of an arrest warrant in France, was behind the plan, but denied the allegation.

[dirty_sanchez]

Zahavi is involved in MSI. I don't think it's cynical, to me it looks like a group of like-minded and funded venture capitalists deciding to make a killing out of the premiership. That is, they are using our game as a kind of plaything - collatoral for their for various financial and political purposes. It's just a conicidense that they all know each other and have similar backgrounds I suppose.....

But Zahavi's actual role in Portsmouth is very minimal isn't it? There's a lot of this conspiricy theory going around based on things like them all knowing each other. Well that happens. The people involved in the differant areas here, Abramovich, Joorabchian, Zahavi etc, are all big names in world football, of course they all know each other.

[Tom]

But Zahavi's actual role in Portsmouth is very minimal isn't it? There's a lot of this conspiricy theory going around based on things like them all knowing each other. Well that happens. The people involved in the differant areas here, Abramovich, Joorabchian, Zahavi etc, are all big names in world football, of course they all know each other.

It's more than "just know each other" though. They share business, objectives and operate similarly. Abramovich is said to own a share of MSI.

[dirty_sanchez]

"Is said to..."
"Operate similarly..."

It's all very vague. Anyway, I don't doubt that there is some kind of dodgy dealings going on, I'm just curious as to whether there is any actual evidence at all to link Abramovich or Chelsea to Portsmouth or whether people are using it to cry conspiracy?

[red g]

"Is said to..."
"Operate similarly..."

It's all very vague. Anyway, I don't doubt that there is some kind of dodgy dealings going on, I'm just curious as to whether there is any actual evidence at all to link Abramovich or Chelsea to Portsmouth or whether people are using it to cry conspiracy?

when you have that many billion sure he cant remember where he put it all !

[Rich]

Don't you think with all Abramovich's money, he isn't spending a sizable sum in trying to cover his dirty tracks?

We might all be able to smell the stench - but proof will be a lot harder to come by.

Our whole psychology regarding team sports is geared around 'fairness', now we know that football isn't a level playing ground - you'd never expect Marine to beat Liverpool, and you never expect Liverpool to outspend Chelsea - but it's still 11 v 11 out there, and that is 'fair'

These latest developments goes to show that fairness is being compromised.

What happens behind the scenes in a game between Portsmouth and Chelsea? Maybe Chelsea have the title wrapped up, maybe Portsmouth need the points? A quiet word here, a quiet word there - Chelsea somehow lose, thus helping Portsmouth.

That is not fair, the whole foundation of team sports is therefore at risk.

The undisclosed links are very, very bad for the game.

[BobSkinstad]

I'm not sure that Abramovich is linked to Portsmouth.

Arkady Gaydamak is, and he is an arms dealer, who is suspected of drug trafficking and being involved in organised crime.

Boris Berezovsky is the money man behind MSI, and he stinks. Nominally, he made his money in oil, but he's also about selling arms to the Chechens, dealing in hostages, quite like instrumental in starting the First Chechen War, asset stripping and funnelling cash off companies like Aeroflot and LogoVAZ, etc, etc... All this in addition to rigging the debt auctions of the oil companies and making sure he and his mates make off like rapists on the deals. Oh, yeah, throw in a few murders here and there...

[Tom]

I can all see this ending very, very, very badly. not just for the clubs involved but for the game in the large. there's something very unpleasant happening here supported by some pretty obnoxious people.

[JRG]

I couldn't agree more, it is such a transparent money laundering scam. This must be stopped.

Christ and I thought the Glazers were bad for the game.

[BobSkinstad]

It's just very concerning when we see completely corrupt foreigners - who would be considered dangerous criminals in their homeland were their homeland a half-sane society (and Berezovsky actually is considered a criminal) - using the game to their own little (or not so little) sh*tty needs.