Football Is Fixed's Response To Initiative By Manchester United Supporters' Trust & The Spirit Of Shankly

The Football Is Fixed Response To This Excellent Initiative

Introduction

This strategy by the Spirit Of Shankly (SOS) and the Manchester United Supporters' Trust (MUST) is a real threat to those destroying English football for illicit proprietary gain.

The only thing that will save the integrity of football is supporters recognising the reality of what is being done to their sport and these fans then coming together as one to confront the takeover of English football by organised crime groups (OCGs).

This is what these criminals are most afraid of.

The over-used statement that football without fans is nothing resonates with power...

... their business strategies depend on fan gullibility and the divide and rule tactic of turning rival fans against one another to the overall detriment of the legitimacy of the sport.

Manchester United and Liverpool fans standing up to their owners over the European Super League (ESL) was the key turning point.

It was this strength of purpose that led to John Henry / Fenway Sports Group (FSG) and the Glazers deciding to sell their clubs - this change in strategy was caused by the realisation that the owners wouldn't be able to monetise their control to sociopathic levels of private profit accumulation.

With OCGs leaking statements to captured media in the Guardian (whose output is under the control of matchfixing football agent John Colquhoun and the Stellar / Wasserman / Unique / CAA Base [SWUC] cartel of rogue agents) that it will be 5 years before the independent regulator is established, the fight for the soul of English football is literally a now or never opportunity.

Football cannot continue trusting this government who not only gave a green light to the ESL but also allowed the takeover of Newcastle United by a sovereign wealth fund fronting for a state terrorist who murders investigative journalists and orders beheadings on a whim.

Furthermore, it was this rancid Tory government that allowed the Liverpool v Atletico Madrid Champions League tie to go ahead at the height of the pandemic when Madrid was a primary locus of covid-19 at the time.

That decision by Oliver Dowden led to many deaths on Merseyside and in Madrid...

... and a loss of life is a loss of life whether it is orchestrated by South Yorkshire police at Hillsborough or Johnson's sociopaths in Westminster.

There should be a Justice For The Covid Dead just as there should be Justice for the 97.

And, don't forget, this shower of charlatans in government have still not responded to the Hillsborough Report published in 2017.

Key Areas Of Criminality In English Football

The key areas of corruption and organised crime in English football are as follows:

Rogue owners - Tony Bloom (the Brighton & Hove Albion owner) is a former bookmaker who insider trades his teams games to the detriment of the fans paying for his operation. He also runs the biggest betting syndicate in Europe while his former employee Matthew Benham utilises exactly the same business template at Brentford. More than 70% of EPL owners are not fit and proper with special attention given to the owners of  Newcastle United, Leicester City, Liverpool, Everton, Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City, Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest and Southampton.

Insider Trading & Matchfixing - It isn't only Bloom and Benham who matchfix their own clubs' games. This is a general business strategy across the league - an illicit revenue stream away from prying eyes. It has reached the stage where a Premier League game that doesn't have corruption inputs in the market is worthy of note.

Professional Game Match Officials - The limited roster of referees in the Premier League is problematical. The introduction of VAR in the EPL has been problematical. The fact that, of the six 'retired' referees at Stockley Park overseeing VAR, only two reached UEFA / FIFA status while two are under the direct control of criminalised agent John Colquhoun is problematical. The links between certain referees and bookmakers is problematical. The targeting of certain clubs e.g. Bournemouth and Everton in season 2022/23 is problematical. No other league has as many incorrect key decisions as the EPL. 

Doping - UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) is not fit for purpose. There are very few top level teams that don't utilise doping to gain competitive advantage. It destroys integrity as well as lives as seen from Dino Baggio's recent comments on Italian television concerning how doping was behind the early deaths of Sinisa Mihajlovic and Gianluca Vialli.

Organised Crime Groups - Mafia are in control of much of the corruption in British football. For standing up to these entities, our network receive threats and life-threatening violence. OCGs don't want communication or a legitimate sport. They want psychopathic power.

Cartels of Agents / Rogue Agents - A player will play for numerous clubs during his career but is usually with one agent for life. Coercion leads to player under-performance so that insider trading scams can be landed with the promise of a media or other career in the game after retirement being the inducement to cheat. Agents also energise excessive third party ownership in the EPL meaning that it is difficult or impossible to know who or what is controlling the performance of a captured player.

Independent Regulator For English Football (IREF) - The membership of this pre-natal body is full of inappropriate individuals - David Davies, Mervyn King to name but two. IREF is not only being decelerated in its route to operation but it is controlled and has neither the expertise nor the willingness to confront the systemic corruption which brings in more money to the Treasury than legitimacy would.

Direct Action

The only way to move forward on a fan-led agenda is to combine direct action and campaigning action to force the government to stop the private equity-led asset stripping of the value of the English game. As teams lose their sporting legitimacy, the profits are privatised and then monetised in Offshore Financial Centres (OFCs).

So, the manner in which the Muckers' Supporters Group got rid of the odious Oystons at Blackpool or how the Green Brigade confront the Celtic board over the  club agent being a mafia man or the majority shareholder being a bookmaker who insider trades Celtic games are strategies that should copied throughout the British game.

Conclusion

All of the issues outlined above could be addressed if a properly formed and functioning IREF was implemented immediately.

Fans need to move beyond the blinkered support solely of their club towards a more expansive support of a fight to save the legitimacy of the beautiful game.

Further proofs of matters that we touch upon above can be found in our book which is freely available below on this blog.

If anybody wishes to communicate or liaise with us in this fight against football's theft by organised crime then you may reach me at: footballisfixed@proton.me.

It is time for all fans to be victorious in a giant killing worthy of its name.

Jeremiah Bullivant, Manchester, January 29th 2023

© 2023 Football is Fixed 

Manchester United And Liverpool Fans Issue Rare Joint Statement

Manchester United and Liverpool supporters have set aside their long-standing hostilities to come together by calling for tougher ownership rules for English clubs.

The clubs' two biggest fan representative groups have united to issue a rare joint statement urging government ministers to include a much more robust test for owners and directors test of football clubs in a forthcoming white paper.

It follows months of talks between the Manchester United Supporters' Trust (MUST) and Spirit of Shankly (SOS) and comes at a time when the current owners of both clubs are looking at potential sales.

Draft legislation of football governance - which is due to include plans for a new independent regulator - is expected to be published next month.

Both United and Liverpool fans want greater influence going forward in how their clubs are run and better safeguards to prevent their and other clubs from falling into the hands of unfit owners.

It is understood that MUST and SOS - who were contributors to the fan led review last year - wrote to the Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan just before Christmas to raise many of their concerns and wishes. But they are yet to receive any firm commitments from the Department for Digital, Culture. Media and Sports (DCMS), despite their views being welcomed.

In a joint statement, Duncan Drasdo, MUST chief executive, and SOS chairman Joe Blott, said: "By common consent, our clubs are the biggest in English football and, with a combined worldwide fanbase of over 200 million people, they are widely recognised global institutions - in fact perhaps of the most well-known British institutions worldwide.

"That global profile will likely attract many potential bidders, including some whose primary motivations may not respect either the cultural heritage of our clubs or the values and interests of supporters. We think that we should be a matter of importance to the government.

"Just as the government would not allow our most important cultural or heritage assets to fall into unfit or improper hands, it should not allow our football clubs to do so either."

MUST and SOS, who are due to issue a full press release on Wednesday, welcome proposals for a new independent football regulator but fear there is "a danger it will come too late for the country's two biggest and most successful clubs".

The statement adds: "Manchester United and Liverpool fans are the most fierce rivals. If we can come together with common cause then we believe the government can work out a way to ensure its Independent Regulator for English Football (IREF) and stronger ownership rules can be introduced quickly enough to safeguard the future of our two clubs."

MUST and SOS coming together is the most notable show of unity since the collapse of the reviled European Super League (ESL) proposal in April 2021. The Glazers and Fenway Sports Group (FSG), the respective owners of United and Liverpool, both had prominent roles in the plot. Protests by United fans ended up leading to the postponement of a Premier League game against Liverpool at Old Trafford the following month.

Drasdo told Telegraph Sport in November that United face the threat of "another Glazer" unless the government apply a rigorous Chelsea-style audit to any potential takeover at Old Trafford given the failure to introduce a football regulator. Chelsea's buyout by the American billionaire Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital in May last year required government approval after the club's previous owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned over links to the Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The Glazer, who have been deeply unpopular owners at Old Trafford since their hostile takeover in 2005, hired merchant bank the Raine Group in November to find investors as they explore a potential sale. The news came just weeks after it emerged that FSG were also looking at a possible sale of Liverpool.