How English is English Club Football

I think it would generally be accepted that the top four clubs in English Football are Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United.

Listed below are major shareholders in these clubs

Arsenal - Alisher Usmanov (Russian Oligarch)
Chelsea - Roman Abramovich (Russian Oligarch)
Liverpool - George Gillett and Tom Hicks (American Businessmen)
Man Utd - Malcolm Glazer (American Businessman)

As I understand it all but Alisher Usmanov effectively "own" the clubs, he is the 2nd largest shareholder (again as I understand it) with around 23% of the shares, which he purchased for £120,000,000.

In addition to this Manchester City are owned by Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai Prime Minister. Lakshmi Mittal (Indian Businessman) has recently bought a substantial holding in QPR and there's no sign of this trend letting up. It seems to be the fashion to buy an English football club.

So the clubs aren't owned by Englishmen any more, so who's managing them. Not really any need to go into that, the top clubs aren't managed by Englishmen and haven't been for some time.

So, how English is English club football. Not very it would seem.

Yup there's no stopping it. There's a lot of money to be made in English football and everyone around the world have realised that. I think even Newcastle Utd. was about to be taken over wasnt it. There were rumours going 'round last season I believe or was it just Man City and I'm mixing them up.
You also forgot that West Ham is owned by some Icelandic group.

The next one's in the race of buying clubs will be the Arabs, lets see who they buyout. Eventually all the top flight clubs will be owned by foreigners with the way things are going.

I didn't actually forget about West Ham, just didn't see the point in discussing everyone. Enough to make the point seemed to be the order of the day.

Fulham is another obvious one, with Al Fayad. Randy Lerner bought Aston Villa. Madejski at Reading. Didn't Niall Quinn head an Irish consortium which bought Sunderland.

Point is over the last couple of years it's the really big clubs which have been bought. Previously there were a few wealthy businessmen buying some of the lesser clubs, as much for a hobby as anything else it seemed. Now it's the giants.

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Originally Posted by Mr JP Fugley

So, how English is English club football. Not very it would seem.

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j'agree.

At least Newcastle are still english, like.

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Originally Posted by Proper Bo

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Originally Posted by Mr JP Fugley

So, how English is English club football. Not very it would seem.

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j'agree.

At least Newcastle are still english, like.

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Correct me if I'm wrong but there has been some foreign interest in New Castle. However didn't some English billionaire recently invest in the club.

Paul Ashley who's fotunes are now dwindling.
The clubs are still mostly English or have an English feel to them at least.
Bar Arsenal and Liverpool who's structure is predominantly foreign.
Even Chelski don't seem too Johnny Foreigner to me.

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Originally Posted by nicole's dad

The clubs are still mostly English or have an English feel to them at least.

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In what way, they are owned by foreigners and managed by foreigners, with predominantly foreign players.

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Originally Posted by Mr JP Fugley

In what way, they are owned by foreigners and managed by foreigners, with predominantly foreign players.

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That's true for Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool.
The others haven't sold out so badly yet. Most likely just a matter of time though. :cry:

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Originally Posted by benchez

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Originally Posted by Mr JP Fugley

In what way, they are owned by foreigners and managed by foreigners, with predominantly foreign players.

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That's true for Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool.
The others haven't sold out so badly yet. Most likely just a matter of time though. :cry:

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What about Manutd.

Owned by an American, managed by a Scot. I'm watching the Villa game and I hear quite a lot of foreign names. P'raps not as many as the other big clubs but still plenty.

Ronaldo, Saha, Tevez, Fletcher, Van der Saha, Vidic, Park, Giggs.

I don't count the Scots as foreign. Fake Ronaldo just scored. :w00t:

Ferdinand, Brown, Carrick, Hargreaves, Rooney....

Injured...Scholes, Neville, Foster.

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Originally Posted by benchez

I don't count the Scots as foreign. Fake Ronaldo just scored. :w00t:

Ferdinand, Brown, Carrick, Hargreaves, Rooney....

Injured...Scholes, Neville, Foster.

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The question tho' is how English is English club football.

What of the Welsh and the German / Canadian, are we counting them as English as well.

Rooney just sealed it.

Well the queen is German/Danish so.........

Names I listed were all English ;)

Names I mentioned all weren't ;)

And they are most of your stars ;);)

To say nowt of the most important factor over the years, Sir Lex ;););)

Well considering the question is How English is English Club Football.
Not very and has been filled with scots and irish for years.

Mostly players and managers tho, which is really the teams. I think there is a big distinction between the team and the club.

The major clubs are now being taken over by foreigners, which to me is far more concerning that the clubs bringing in foreign players, coaches and managers.

I agree with that, but as the sport becomes more money orientated...money rules. :dabs: I don't like it either.

Problem is the main "players" in English football now are Sky, Setanta a few Americans, a few Russians and various other foreigners.

Or a bunch of money-making cunts as they are otherwise known. Commercialism, capitalism...meh...what to do. :huh:

And also people who are used to getting their own way. One way or another.

Thing is the EPL is totally dependent on this income and investment now. The soul has well and truly been sold to the Devil.

The other concern is the national team. That has definitely been spiralling down recently, the domestic game must surely be linked to that.

Ours (national team) in a small way has been on the up. There is no doubt in my mind that this is to a large extent due to less foreign players and more young'uns (like Hutton etc) being brought thro' and playing for the bigger teams. The last team had like 7 from Celtic / rangers in the starting squad. That means they are used to playing together and playing in front of large noisy crowds.

So we should make the EPL crap.... :huh:
I actually think that might work.

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Originally Posted by benchez

So we should make the EPL crap.... :huh:
I actually think that might work.

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It wasn't crap when it used to dominate Europe. Winning the European cup every fecking year or as near it as makes no difference.

Qualifying for major International tournaments and getting to semi-finals.

True, but have you got a better plan. :sneaky:
Crap then build up back to that ^ is the way forward for me.

No, like I said already I think the soul is sold to the Devil.

So long as it's all about money, as you said earlier, it won't change.

FA were considering to impose a rule that every Premier league team has to have a minimum of 8 (or so) English players. But then they decided against it, I think if they had imposed this rule it would have helped in the growth of english players considerably. But then they realised that most of the top clubs have lot of foreign players and this would lead to a huge loss in revenue. So fuck... who cares about our footballing youth, as long as we're bringing in the money it doesnt matter.

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Originally Posted by limpdickkid

FA were considering to impose a rule that every Premier league team has to have a minimum of 8 (or so) English players. But then they decided against it, I think if they had imposed this rule it would have helped in the growth of english players considerably. But then they realised that most of the top clubs have lot of foreign players and this would lead to a huge loss in revenue. So fuck... who cares about our footballing youth, as long as we're bringing in the money it doesnt matter.

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That would probably have been illegal anyway I would have thought.

At least as far as it relates to the EU.

Either way, the "big players" as discussed earlier wouldn't have let it happen.

The English FA are now effectively toothless tigers.

Fuck off, English football is as English as a cup of tea, a jacket potato, and a chicken korma... :unsure:

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Originally Posted by Barbarossa

Fuck off, English football is as English as a cup of tea, a jacket potato, and a chicken korma... :unsure:

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Fat bastard

That's easy for you to say :snooty:

Surprisingly so.

The Premiership has definitely sold it's soul to the devil, no doubt, but do people really support the board? English football is English as long as it's in England - with the exception of Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham. What's happening is a bit of a concern but as long as there's games to go to down the road then English football can only be English.