How governments are taking over football « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

Game over. So say the governments.  By Adam Brogden

A lot of people are concentrating on corporations involving themselves in modern football and have missed governments moving in. Why is this? I do not have the answers for this (I will take a guess, later)  but would like to look at the main players.

In the hot sandy corner we have sheikh  Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan owner of  Manchester city, politician and member of the ruling family in the U.A.E.  His half brother is Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan who is president of the U.A.E. and has a reported family fortune of $7.5billion so can afford the odd portion of chips.  Back to these boys later.

In the cold snowy corner that can be Russia we have Gazprom and VTB Bank owners of Zenit st Petersburg & FC Dynamo Moscow.    Gazprom earned $45Billion last year but are also 50.01%  State owned.

VTB Bank 85.5% state owned have total assets amounting to $160 billion and most of their board hold government positions. So these chaps can afford to buy the chip shop that Khalifa frequents. More on these boys later as well.

United Arab Emirates. Main industry used to be pearling but that died a death and the states were up against it until the discovery of oil back in the 1960s. To date UAE’s  GDP is $300 billion.

Russia. Main industry:  Arms industry.  They are second only to the United states employing 2.5 million people in the manufacturing of weapons. 20% of all income can be traced back to armaments. Aircraft manufacturing is important as they sell Migs and Helicopters to EU countries including Slovakia, Germany, Poland (nice to know our borders are safe).

Oil reserves in Russia are some of the largest. As most people would know the oil and gas industry in Russia is massive. Russia’s GDP is a whopping $2.3 trillion so we can all look forward to a marvellous world cup in 2018 in the knowledge that their armed forces will not run out of fuel.

Enos Stanley “Stan” Kroenke. Majority share holder of our beloved temple also know as the Arsenal. Worth about $3.2 Billion so not in the same league as our “corporate government” lot above. He married into the Walton’s family who are worth a tad more at $200 Billion. But no government jobs for this lot.

Alisher Usmanov.   Oh where do I start. This mystery man from Uzbekistan use to or still does work for Gazprom, as we know Gazprom is Russian state owned and has a controlling interest in Zenit. From 1998 to 2000 he held the position of First Deputy General Director of Gazprominvestholding.

From 2000 to 2001 Mr. Usmanov served as an adviser to the Chairman of Gazprom. As of February 2000 till present he serves as General Director of Gazprominvestholding. He is attached to or owns various mining companies as well as media based industries he is reported to be worth $18 billion. Is he a government man; of course he is.

Is there a conflict of interests with his links to Gazprom? I believe there is and this might be why the current board will not allow him to be on the board.  Back in 1995 he was made Adviser to the General Director of Moscow Aviation Industrial Enterprise (MAPO), MAPO later became the Russian Aircraft Company. This consolidation was however not very successful, and MAPO was later merged with Sukhoi.

Remember the Migs I was talking about? From 1995 to 1997 he was First Deputy Chairman of MAPO Bank. How long do we have to wait, to find out his/their intentions?

Why are these people involving themselves in football?  What benefit can they gain when they have to play against or with governments? For the time being Kroenke is in charge at Arsenal, but as I have shown above he is the poorer of the bunch.  What possesses the man to stick around when he knows what financial clout he’s up against?

To put things into perspective I’ll show the numbers in all there glory.

Arsenal.                  £650,000,000.  (What were worth approx). Kroenke.              $3,200,000,000. Zayed.                  $7,500,000,000. Usmanov.           $18,000,000,000. Gazprom.            $44,000,000,000.   (2011 only) VTB Bank.        $160,000,000,000. U.A.E.               $300,000,000,000.

Russia.       $230,000,000,000,000.

I can understand the Russians getting involved in the world cup bid, but to buy the clubs, build new stadiums, invest in players is too much interference. The UAE involved in Manchester City it seems to me is an advertising vehicle albeit a very expensive one.

But my point in all this is to show that Arsenal cannot compete financially with any of the above. Not when it is a nation’s government behind the club. Spend some f***ing money. Got to go to war first.

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