Some Mancunian reprobate economist (Jim O'Neill formerly of Goldman Sachs) came up with the acronym BRICs for Brazil, Russia, India and China - the emerging economies that were allegedly challenging the economic might of the G7 economies.
Of course, in reality, the monopoly of US hyperimperialism was shifting to a duopoly of China and the US disaster capitalism - CUs rather than BRICs.
For the build up to the FIFA 2014, we would like to suggest a similar acronym for the players who will be selected for Roy Hodgson's England squad - SKWBs - representing the four firms of agents that Mr Hodgson shows a bias towards - Stellar, Key Sports, Wasserman, Base.
To reiterate...
Agents operate competitively but some also form fragmented cartels to ensure mutual benefits.
So 13 members of the Euro 2012 squad came from Stellar, Key Sports, Wasserman and Base (Hodgson is himself represented by Base).
And for the recent round of England internationals and Under-21 games, over 50% of the squads came from these four agencies.
Indeed, Key Sports only have 12 players on their books who could
feasibly play for England or England U-21's and every single one of them
has been selected!
John Colquhoun, a partner in Key Sports, was Fulham, West Brom and Liverpool club agent during Hodgson's time at the clubs and these two individuals go back a long way.
See http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/happy-anniversary-to-roy-hodgson.html
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There are two primary issues with this mismanagement.
1. Meritocracy
With such a bias in who is selected for England squads, players who choose to be represented by agents other than the above risk being left out in the cold when World Cup selection occurs.
Hence careers are restricted by non-competitive bias or...
... players are "persuaded" or "coerced" into switching their representation to SKWBs to ensure valid career development.
Additionally, due to the massively distorted nature of footballing finances, there is an entirely illegal arbitrage available to Mr Hodgson and the firms of agents should they select to choose such a route.
See http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/kick-out-kickbacks-for-kick-off.html
2. Match Fixing
The annual global underground betting turnover on football is $1.02 trillion - £650 billion.
The annual United Kingdom (sic) GDP is only $2.45 trillion - £1593 billion.
So...
... a lot of money is bet on football.
Aside from making the lack of regulation regarding insider trading glaringly apparent (there are no obstacles to fixing football matches so long as such corruption occurs within the elite loop), such financial figures also demonstrate what amounts of dirty money can be generated by control of match outcomes.
See http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/stellar-returns.html
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We are going to be monitoring Mr Hodgson and his cronies very very closely in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup 2014.
Because we think that the scum and scabs will scam to the benefit of SKWBs.
For many more itemised angles on corruption follow us on Twitter @FootballIsFixed
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