Lots of commentary in past 36hrs about why PL charges under PSR rules against EFC and NFFC appear to be being expedited, while Man City's 115 charges (from an investigation dating back to 2018) linger, TBD on a now-agreed but not public timetable 1/n Everton (for a second time) and Forest have been charged for "simple" failures to balance their books around the "acceptable" losses of £105m over a 3-year ruling period. 2/n

10 years ago this week, we published an investigation by @MarthaKelner and me, revealing there was a doping and cover-ups plot underway in Russian sport, naming lab boss Grigory Rodchenkov at the heart of it.

🧵

1/n @marthakelner It was the biggest story I’ve ever broken, and I can’t imagine doing another with such significant ramifications.

(Oh, and it was totally ignored, not least by the IOC, who were given evidence and couldn’t be arsed to act).

2/n

Reminded today quite how massive Man Utd are as a football club, with the response to an article asking simple questions about Sheikh Jassim and his resources and motivations attracting wacko replies from thousands of people the world over Many of the replies / comments to last night's thread and article have been casebook studies in the power of sportswashing (a terms I find problematic for various reasons). Some (far from all) MUFC fans rabidly defending / championing a stranger.

So little is known about Sheikh Jassim, the Qatari bank manager who lodged a £4bn bid to buy Man Utd on Friday night, that even spokespeople working for him don’t know his age, whether he is married or how he made a supposed fortune of billions. A 🧵

1/n Plenty is known about his dad, Qatar’s PM from 2007 to 2013, Sheikh Hamad, aka HBJ, who in several meetings with Prince Charles a few years ago gave the UK’s current king £2.6m in cash in suitcases, a holdall and in Fortnum & Mason carrier bags.

2/n

Sheikh Jassim's NINE TWO Foundation (through which he hopes to buy Man Utd) doesn't appear to have any current presence. Bid apparently in region of £4bn plus investment. Is NINE TWO a reference to Class of 92? Sue him @GNev2 for copyright infringement @GNev2 Bloomin' Qatari sheikhs, coming over here, stealing our nicknames. This geezer isn't remotely wealthy enough on his own to have £4bn for a bid and maybe £2bn more on investment. Obvious front for a state-backed & funded project on the face of it.

OH MY GOD.

Massive

https://twitter.com/martynziegler/status/1622539544078827520

Premier League statement here in full

premierleague.com/news/3045970

The ALLEGATIONS are basically: Man City cooked their books for years, made inappropriate manager and player payments, dodged FFP and didn't co-operate with PL investigations

In the 3 World Cup 2022 matches before USA-Wales, the official attendances have been 67,372 (in a stadium with capacity of 60,000); 45,334 (in a stadium holding 40,000) and 41,721 (in a stadium holding 40,000).

Amazing, not least given all the empty seats. I'm not saying Qatar 2022 is built on lies and propaganda and mistruths that are so obvious it's embarrassing, like 3 workers have died in 10 years building the 2020 infrastructure, but .... okay, I am saying that.

England are preparing to face Iran in the Khalifa Stadium, where Briton Zac Cox, a construction worker, fell to his death, age 40, in January 2017, in what an inquest later found were "downright dangerous" conditions. 1/n Zac Cox, white and western, not only got an inquest but a judge-led inquiry.

NONE of the 2,823 foreign workers who died in Qatar between 2011 and 2020 of unexplained causes — ‘unclassified’ is how Qatar's official data records them - got or inquests. 2/n

Valid argument we should accept & respect hugely different cultures hosting a World Cup.

Not sure respecting Qatar's attitude they couldn't give a fuck about the lives & deaths of migrant workers, who have made up 90% of popn since 2010, is a good thing. As @tariqpanja's brilliant reporting detailed yesterday, Qatar is far from the only place where migrant workers are dying in their thousands in shit exploitative conditions. Hello Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Malaysia, to name just three.

This time last week, Fulham were ditching sponsor Titan after executives were proved fake & included actors and a punk singer. Guarantees of 480% annual profits were nonsense. This 🧵 turns attention to opaque Man City betting partner 8xBet. 1/n Before we get to 8xBet & Man City, last week’s story led to an Australian senator, James McGrath (@SenatorMcGrath), raising my investigation in Aussie parliament, saying he was embarrassed that Oz-based Titan were ‘dodgy as hell’ & called for answers

2/n

Short 🧵 on Matt Hancock declaring on I'm a Celebrity that he is now simply seeking "forgiveness". I write this as someone whose 47-year-old wife, terminally ill, died in a hospice the day after testing positive for Covid, in December 2020.

1/n Hancock wasn't responsible for Helen's death. Nor responsible for me having only window visits for an hour or so each day for last 9 months of Helen's life. But he WAS responsible for decisions that led to deaths of 10s of 1000s, not least in care homes. 2/n

Netflix's four-part documentary FIFA Uncovered", released today, is worth your time. A proper history of the corruption and its roots back to 1974. With new interviews with some of the most corrupt sports officials of our age, saying they did nothing wrong. Alongside a cast of massively dodgy FIFA folk mired in corruption, and Gianni Infantino calling the FIFA of 2015 a "criminal organisation" (irony), is quite a bit of the brilliant @david_conn explaining the complex stuff to newcomers

Premier League clubs have seen a spate of dodgy sponsors. I've been investigating a Fulham sponsor, Titan. I can reveal that today, having been presented with our findings, Fulham have TERMINATED the deal.

CC: @FulhamSuppTrust @tomjgreatrex

🧵 1/n @FulhamSuppTrust @tomjgreatrex A number of supposedly key employees at Titan Capital Markets don't exist, and were portrayed in promo materials by actors & models. EG: Chief technology officer 'Scott Gibson' was in fact Daryl, a punk singer and voiceover artist from Malaysia.

2/n

Earlier this year, I wondered to what extent it might be possible, using official Qatari data published by the Qatari Government, to answer the Q: How many people (foreign workers) have died during Qatar's preparations to host the 2022 World Cup?

🧵 1/n One reason this seemed a valid question was because Qatar's "Supreme Committee" had set their own, extremely narrow, criteria, for which deaths "counted" and which deaths didn't. 2/n

Big story breaking

spiegel.de/sport/fussball… The new @derspiegel piece says the PL investigation into MCFC, now into a fourth year, is focussing on these three specific things. Incendiary stuff.

How's this for confounding expectations. England's group is the hardest, by average world ranking of four team. Qatar's group easiest.

NB for play-offs have assumed highest-ranked team go through. 👆

England are Group B, obviously. Typo doing this too fast!

Cough.

From US legal indictment, March 2020. Most Qatar 2022 World Cup fixtures haven't been allocated stadiums yet. England could yet play in the Khalifa Stadium, where British construction worker Zac Cox fell 130 feet to his death due to unsafe working conditions in 2017.

So many things amiss with English football ATM, including agents. That's woeful, as is a tsunami of crypto garbage. It was announced in December that BitCoin zealot / podcaster @PeterMcCormack had bought 10th-tier Bedford FC and would take them to PL

1/n @PeterMcCormack In a few hours it will be April & @PeterMcCormack still doesn't own Bedford FC, is facing ruin in a High Court libel case, and has, according to him, signed up 100s of 1000s of £s in sponsors & sold 10s or 1000s of £s in merchandise to a club he doesn't own

The amount that Premier League clubs spent in the past year alone on agents' fees (£272.6m) could pay all the wages at all 24 League Two clubs (every player, manager, coach, executive, and ALL non-playing staff).

For four years. Wrote about some of the most egregious agent profiteering across Europe back in December. Like the agent who made £16m on a £20m deal.

mailonsunday.co.uk/sport/football…

What constitutes a good / bad owner in English football has been thrown under the spotlight in recent weeks by the ongoing chaos at Chelsea with Abramovich putting the club up for sale, and other geopolitical ownership issues.

Thread 1/n These developments coincided with me overseeing a huge piece of research from late January and into last month about good & bad owners (initially in the Premier League); an independent regulator; and what fans really want from their clubs' custodian.

🧵 2/n

Gareth Southgate is an admirable figure. And in this case tremendously well briefed, articulate, and reasonable in citing the complexities of Qatar 2022. In his heart, he knows it’s wrong, corrupt & despicable. Genuine admiration for treading this fine line.

https://twitter.com/SkySportsNews/status/1507478234430062594

He could take a harder line and say Qatar 2022 was won by corruption and has been built, literally, on the deaths of foreign (indentured) slaves. But that leaves the FA no moral alternative but to boycott, and they don’t have the moral fortitude for that.