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Generic small time football blather thread FOREVER


Sonatine
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I'm so sick of seeing these stories about sportswashing. The term is fucking ludicrous on the face of it. It like, yeah Newcastle are going to win the league and then people are going to be like, hey don't Saudi Arabia behead people in public?, Nah must be my imagination. 

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28 minutes ago, Polarboy said:

I'm so sick of seeing these stories about sportswashing. The term is fucking ludicrous on the face of it. It like, yeah Newcastle are going to win the league and then people are going to be like, hey don't Saudi Arabia behead people in public?, Nah must be my imagination. 

There's a little more to it than that like.

 

By associating themselves with a global brand like the Premier League they're going to enjoy any reflected glory. Mansour's done it with City. We're all aware of the human rights violations happening in KSA because they've been spoken about so much recently, but off the top of your head can you name those in the Emirates?

 

Also, you'll have seen people on twitter with Saudi flags, Arabic text, you'll have seen a handful of daft lads dressed up with headscarves and the like. It's insidious and pervasive.

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13 minutes ago, The Fish said:

There's a little more to it than that like.

 

By associating themselves with a global brand like the Premier League they're going to enjoy any reflected glory. Mansour's done it with City. We're all aware of the human rights violations happening in KSA because they've been spoken about so much recently, but off the top of your head can you name those in the Emirates?

 

Also, you'll have seen people on twitter with Saudi flags, Arabic text, you'll have seen a handful of daft lads dressed up with headscarves and the like. It's insidious and pervasive.

 

The  people you are talking about were already ignorant of what happens in the middle east, and even they they will now hear about human rights abuses when they wouldn't have normally. Anyone with even the slightest idea about what happens in the UAE, Qatar, Saudi etc. aren't going to forget or become permissive of human rights abuses because a country is pouring money into a football team. This idea that middle eastern countries think they can reform their images through sport is overplayed in my opinion. The main reasons for investing are they need to diversify away from oil, it's an investment, it's a toy for them, and they need to spend their ridiculous amounts of money on something. No amount of sporting glory is going to deflect the images people have in their heads of beheading, crucifixion's, gay people being killed, women being second class citizens etc. 

Edited by Polarboy
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Lean towards Polarboy with this one (in general) but can see the Fish's side too in the sense that if a group of people who don't care about Saudi human rights abuses come to associate them with positive soft power, sporting success and they become 'cool', it could provide some cover for them for future heinous acts. People who would have been apathetic might now feel compelled to defend them. I'm sure we'll see some NUFC fans doing this.

 

Just not sure it'll be to any tangibly useful level.

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1 hour ago, wykikitoon said:

My brother in law said that once :lol: too true 

How do your brother-in-law’s canine masturbatory proclivities go down with the family, aside from him being a former Mackem manager? 

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17 hours ago, Alex said:

I actually think England could’ve done better (the World Cup came too early) and win the Euros with a braver / better manager in the final. Equally a lot of managers wouldn’t have done as well. Either way I put him in the category of being a good fit for the current England setup rather than being someone who could do well in a high profile club job. 

Imagine who would be playing if Fat Sam was still in charge.  Certainly no one under the age of 35.

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5 hours ago, RobinRobin said:

Imagine who would be playing if Fat Sam was still in charge.  Certainly no one under the age of 35.

Rooney would probably still be captain 

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