How to buy a football club?

[tans]

No wonder why they dropped like a stone. If I was a Preston fan I'd be absolutely fuming!

Come on we all know Alex Ferguson is an arrogant cunt. Cant stand him.

[Barry Scott]

Am i the only one who saw this as "well we took all this footage so we may as well make a programme out of it"
Sure yep the guy wanted to have fingers in more than one club and yep that's illegal but it seem to me this was all part of the bravado and business talk when the reality always was they would have to go through the proper channels and now would be found out.

I just took on face value what Bryan Robson was saying and could not really disagree or doubt his connections.
People buy football clubs as consortiums all the time.
I'm probably playing slightly devils advocate here but the dark moody music over certain facts about the "relationship" between the guy and fergie was almost trying to make up he even knew him when it's obvious he did. Fergie has obviously had to back track on his connection but it's clear and confirmed later he was a friend

We all know football works this way with favours for each other and so on,
It's always been about relationships and who you know.
It just seems this documentary is about 10 years too late.

Next week, "players found to be tapped up while under contract shocker.

I'm with you. On the face of it it looked good, but if you actually sat back and thought about what you watched, it seemed like a load of dick waving, with little actual substance or anything to worry about. It was like a tabloid story that had been made to fit an agenda in my ways.

There were parts that were a little concerning, but scrape below the surface and it was little more than some people who thought they were serious players in the world of football trying to convince someone to invest in their mildly stupid, football based, investment fund.

[Summerof69]

Barry, I can see what you're saying but it's not the first time Ferguson has been caught. As I previously said, Fergie has refused for years to speak to the BBC after the Panorama programme after they that Fergie's son had been involved in transfers with Man U in regards to various players having to be his son's agent to sign for Man U so he got a cut of the fee. Allardyce's son was also named. Were there any legal action? No, probably because they were telling the truth and Fergie just didn't like it all coming out in the press.

The fact is football is now like who you know and what favours you can get. As Robson indicated he could get loan players from various managers who he played with. There has been various stories of the 'bending' of the loan system. What happened to the Stoke and Man U players, who were at loan at Preston, but were recalled as soon as Fergie's son got the boot stunk to high heaven. Maybe it's come to the point to limit the time a loan player can be at a club to a maximum of 3 months and the maximum coming from one club to one. It might then stop kids signing to the big clubs knowing that they might not be sent out on loan during the early part of their career, and they would be better signing to a smaller club, and help them progress through the leagues to get noticed.

I hope the FL and the FA look into the programme anyway. Also, isn't it about time the PL told everyone how much they've fined Fergie for not being interviewed for MOTD, which is now against PL rules since last season.

[mrverve]

That Asian guy is the funniest character to come out of a football documentary since Steve Bleasdale's cameo in Big Ron Manager.

[Summerof69]

That Asian guy is the funniest character to come out of a football documentary since Steve Bleasdale's cameo in Big Ron Manager.

I agree, but he was close to Fergie, probably too close.

I see Carson Yeung has appointed his 16 year old son to the Birmingham board.

[mrverve]

I agree, but he was close to Fergie, probably too close.

I see Carson Yeung has appointed his 16 year old son to the Birmingham board.

The guy came across as a complete chancer who didn't have a clue.

I laughed at the bit where Robson claimed he had been a manager in the Premier League for 12 years. Forgot to mention how dire he was.

All in all, the programme wasn't so much an eye opener as just proving what the majority of people already expected was going on.

C4 sensationalised it to make up for the lack of insightful footage. Half of the program was the Asian guy trying to convince himself that he was a close friend of SAF.

Informative but not groundbreaking. It reminded me of the Pananrama programme in December re FIFA corruption. A bit overhyped.

[Barry Scott]

Barry, I can see what you're saying but it's not the first time Ferguson has been caught. As I previously said, Fergie has refused for years to speak to the BBC after the Panorama programme after they that Fergie's son had been involved in transfers with Man U in regards to various players having to be his son's agent to sign for Man U so he got a cut of the fee. Allardyce's son was also named. Were there any legal action? No, probably because they were telling the truth and Fergie just didn't like it all coming out in the press.

The fact is football is now like who you know and what favours you can get. As Robson indicated he could get loan players from various managers who he played with. There has been various stories of the 'bending' of the loan system. What happened to the Stoke and Man U players, who were at loan at Preston, but were recalled as soon as Fergie's son got the boot stunk to high heaven. Maybe it's come to the point to limit the time a loan player can be at a club to a maximum of 3 months and the maximum coming from one club to one. It might then stop kids signing to the big clubs knowing that they might not be sent out on loan during the early part of their career, and they would be better signing to a smaller club, and help them progress through the leagues to get noticed.

I hope the FL and the FA look into the programme anyway. Also, isn't it about time the PL told everyone how much they've fined Fergie for not being interviewed for MOTD, which is now against PL rules since last season.

Oh, of course, much of what you say I saw as being worthy of concern. The crux of the program felt flawed to me though. I mean no one actually bought a club and I personally felt that Joe Sim, or whatever his name was, looked completely full of hot air and would never have ended up with a club, regardless of the vague promises.

To me it felt more like the whole "investment fund" was a front to relieve stupid people of their money, while pretending it had something to do with football. I thought any money going in that fund was going straight in several peoples pockets to never be seen again.

And that was my issue with the program. I was convinced the whole investment thing looked like a total sham from start to finish, where the money would simply disappear and no club would ever materialise. Dispatches completely missed that (in my opinion) in the vain attempt to make it look like they were actually going to get a club and it was easy. They were trolled one might say!

[Simon Pieman]

Thank fuck we didn't end up with Jim Little.

[kaufman]

To me it felt more like the whole "investment fund" was a front to relieve stupid people of their money, while pretending it had something to do with football. I thought any money going in that fund was going straight in several peoples pockets to never be seen again. 

Exactly who goes into a partnership not even knowing what club they were going to be buying.
Just came across as a whole story and people are hanging out Bryan Robson to dry when on the face of it he has done nothing wrong, I thought he comments about football losing the sport tag when sky came in and brought all the money was pretty much spot on and it's been filtering down the leagues since.
Don't get me wrong, some of it has been good for football but was interesting that did show Robson mentioning he would not get involved in a consortium that left a club for debt, yet continued to repeat other clips where it was supposed to be incriminating (I'm using that term loosely there)

[Berniman]

Oxford Utd being banded around like a bunch of poker chips in the back room of a Bangkok bar was the best line of the programme for me.

Good enough for them I say, it's not like they haven't been there before with one Robert Maxwell is it?

[Spencer_White]

It was shite.

You would have thought that plying Robson with that much lager would have resulted in a lot more disclosure than that. Crap.

[Bob's Orange]

Just watched this on Sky+ Since when were Barnsley Town a championship club?