At times of crisis, you expect your leaders to show strength and courage, to be at the forefront of the action, arguing the good argument and fighting the just cause.
Which makes it all the more disappointing that our Great Leader, the arch self-publicist, Richard Scudamore, has been conspicuous by his total absence from the hyperrealities currently playing out on the stage of English football regarding the fit-and-proper-person's-test (FPPT).
But, our sources say that the man is seething at the reactions to recent events at Manchester City, West Ham United and Newcastle United.
You are even able to feel the anger in Scudamore's response to a speech by the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, Andy Burnham.
Well, actually, it is labelled as a Premier League Press Release but the uniqueness of Scudamore's carefully selected words resonate throughout the statement: "We have endeavoured to discuss with Mr Burnham the issues he raises. Instead, he has sought publicity rather than a meaningful policy discussion" said the man who seeks publicity rather than a meaningful policy discussion.
Being an autocracy, the Premier League (PL) don't do internal brainstorming - Mr Scudamore makes all the decisions ##########################################
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######### Then he sets his junior rottweiler, Sir Richards, off to soften up the opposition.
So, what was it that Burnham said that so ruffled our Great Leader?
Well, he warned that big money takeovers, a reliance on foreign imports and huge debts are in danger of destroying the game. He went on to say that football was at risk of losing its identity and core support. He also warns the Football Association (FA) that they must act more robustly to protect the integrity of the sport, expressing his concerns about the quality of the ownership.
Burnham: "We need to ask urgently what we want for the future of our game, before something precious is lost."
Burnham also calls on the FA to broaden FPPT to ensure that any prospective new owner has the club and community's best interest at heart.
We are able to see why Scudamore is so livid!
Burnham is a proper governmental representative for Real Football, after the disastrous previous ministers, seemingly chosen merely to accelerate the deconstruction of the Great Game.
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By addressing the core dynamics of Scudamore's ##############, Burnham is highlighting the Real Issues that underpin the future of the game - Integrity, FPPT, the Impact of the Underground and Dark Pool Betting Markets, Big Money Takeovers of Teams, the Quality of Ownership, the Loss of Core Support, Huge Debts.
The only item on which we disagree with Burnham is his point about the 'reliance on foreign imports'.
Although there clearly needs to be a limit of overseas players in a team, would you rather watch?
Carlos Tevez or Alan Smith?
We should be thinking of setting up a private market (a market between traders where current hyperrealities are assessed and traded - a sort of intranet version of Intrade) on the number of months that Burnham will stay in office.
Although, this market is only a solid sell if evaluated on the systemic risk that Gordon Brown is dead in the water. For, there are other voices who are questioning the direction that the PL is heading under the piloting of our Great Leader.
For example, Lord Triesman, Scudamore's equivalent at the FA: "I am not sure that the regulatory system is any longer adequate".
We're not convinced that Scudamore is any longer adequate, in that he ever was...
Warnings on the integrity of sport have also been sounded in Dave Zirin's "A People's History of Sports in the United States".
Zirin warns that sport is "hyperindividualistic and completely absent of context. In other words... a lot like history... the other problem is that much of it is based on lies. Once again, this is a lot like history..."
It was also unfortunate for Scudamore that a major uproar is taking place in Germany after the publishing of Declan Hill's book "The Fix" - the book is not yet published in Britain. By exposing further links between owners, match officials, other insiders and the betting markets, Hill's book brings the true Reality of the game to a wider readership.
The very very last thing that our Great Leader requires ########################### #######################################################################
Similarly totally unreported in the mainstream English press, seemingly focused solely on the bipolar performances of the Schweintruppe, is the unrest among match officials.
We continue to bring you quotes about how the referees are feeling about the direction the PL are taking the sport.
A major topic of discussion at the moment is PC Howard Webb.
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And yet, on our calculations, Webb was the second worst referee last season.
################################: "[Graeme] Poll came back after making a clown of himself at the 2006 World Cup and was given just about every decent appointment in the coming months as if Hackett/the FA were trying to defend him and justify his existence. I fear that after Howard Webb's less than outstanding Euro 2008 we are in danger of seeing a repeat."
Fair comment.
And a fair point is this: "Despite the rampant defence of Webb in the English press after his decision to award Austria a fake penalty for shirt-pulling in injury time of their Euro 2008 match against Poland, on how many occasions since then have we seen a penalty given for such a 'foul'?
Shirt-pulling mustn't be happening, then...
Also absent from the English media is any focus on the plight of banned ref, and the only official who is actually worse than Webb at our reckoning, Mark 'Full Head Of Hair' Clattenburg. All that money spent on hair implants must seem rather wasted now that his baldness no longer shines out under the Premiership floodlights.
Despite his ban while some outstanding financial matters are investigated, Clattenburg was given the Belgium v Estonia World Cup 2010 Qualifier last weekend.
Understandably, there were some concerns about this appointment.
Is it a statement of the severity of the potential charges against Clattenburg that he was pulled from the Belgium match, even though, historically, a national ban has only prevented FIFA and UEFA representation once the issue has passed through court?
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It is interesting, in many ways, that the takeover that has possibly proved to be one takeover too far is the potential purchase of Manchester City by Sheikh Mansour's sovereign-wealth fund (SWF).
All the takeovers have had a cultural dimension to them so there is no need for Arab money to be regarded any differently than Russian, American, Israeli or Thai.
Yet, the sources of the SWF investment kitty ##################################### ###########################################################################
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It is surely the size of the new Hyperreality Shift that is causing the widespread concern that Scudamore has gone too far.
Of course, some might say that we went too far over the Carlos Tevez/ relegation of West Ham United affair. Others point to his promotion of the 39th Game. Still others question how a man of integrity is able to be so chummy with His Excellency, the Honorary President, the Doctor Thaksin Shinawatra.
And, once again, it is this individual who defines the argument.
Sure, the scale of the City takeover is indecent in magnitude.
But, the key factor is the issue that a fraudster with blood on his hands, a man who looted his country for proprietary gain, a former-policeman-turned-criminal who is now on the run from the law, is able to maintain 25% ownership of the new HyperEntity simply because the outdated rules allow for such a gaming of the system.
The FPPT was only reluctantly introduced in the first place and the whole document is full of loopholes to such an extent that this can only be regarded as a deliberate strategy to undermine any validity of the rules.
There is another level of concern as to the Manchester City takeover however.
SWFs are very opaque.
In a recent survey of 34 such investment vehicles, 10 issued no annual reports and 12 were not subject to audit. Such a structure encourages financial shenanigans of the very type that have landed the former owner, His Excellency, in his current mires.
The other level that must be a concern in the game is the issue of the gambling markets.
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And, it is our belief that this is the prime reasoning behind Scudamore's continued defence of His Excellency. If necessary, the rules of the game will be rewritten in order that the project for which Scudamore is a driving force reaches full fruition.
And Full Fruition = Fucked Football.
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© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological
