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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 7h

Up the Strait of Hormuz IN RECORD NUMBERS.

Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

"Had first met in 1988". Aye, lucky they bumped into each other because nobody had thought of it before then! Regardless, it was principally five clubs pushed for it, thet had been pushing for years, and they demonstrably had plenty of backing elsewhere.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

If only naked self-interest was confined to clubs wearing red. Imagine their impotent fury as they failed to win a single vote.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I'm not sure that's historically accurate. Everton and Spurs (Carter and Scholar) both among those pushing the original PL. Carter, Man Utd and Spurs met Celtic and Rangers to discuss a breakaway league in 1980; in 1983 he said clubs were "increasingly intolerant" of funding those lower down.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Yeah, ESL6 does sum up a cestain view of how football should be. Also, shows how happy these owners were to set up a new closed-shop league with - gasp - the clubs they apparently despise for skewing the existing competition against them.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Really tough. He's doing his best, my sister is paying for home teachers and other support, but just completely stuck. He's a bright, driven kid, just completely overwhelmed by the transition to big school (whose support was initially useless)

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

My nephew has been waiting 18 months for the school to stop being useless and everyone else to stop passing the buck. Wish we'd known about this rush option.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

It's good that you've found an alternative. I know plenty of people who stopped watching PL years and got into non-league. Some combine both. But it's not always the same, is it?

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Would you? You never know. I've lived abroad for most of this century. Football is the first thing I talk about with my dad, my brother, my mates. What would walking away mean? Not going to games? No longer supporting the club?

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The likes of Bezos aren't far off running countries and setting abhorrent laws. Certainly happy to prop up those who do. Not doing whataboutery on the Saudis - no defence there - but you can be sure they'll get an invite to the next ESL or whatever they call it. They do to everything else.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

As for owners, I didn't vote them in and can't vote them out. But I've been supporting this club for 40+ years. It means home, community and connection with family. Winning? I'd have picked another club. I hear it's a thing.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I don't understand how anyone looks at the PL and thinks the only problem is state-owned clubs, tbh. But then I guess everyone sets the bar at a comfortable place for them.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

If we're saying majority rules, you should have no issue with state ownership of PL football clubs, Paul. Where's the debate in that case? 14 clubs have never voted against it.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The self-interest of the majority. You're claiming a division which simply did not exist.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Chelsea were quasi-state owned from 2003, City from 2008. FFP was six years after that, APT rushed through in 2021. This does not suggest a state of affairs where the other clubs were always concerned.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Who's looking for sympathy? You asked a question, i answered it. I also pointed out that the rules weren't tightened earlier because not enough clubs wanted to tighten them. That's about them, not just state ownership.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Takes 14 to vote, and more than 5-6 act in their self-interest. Loopholes stay open because people think they might also benefit from them. They rushed changes through because they didn't want NUFC to do a City, that's true. City had already been done by UEFA, of course.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I have no problem with the principle, but why did it take so long (rhetorical question), and why was it done in such a rushed and cackhanded way? www.bbc.com/sport/footba...

bbc.com

APT rules Premier League: Man City end dispute over sponsor rules

Manchester City and the Premier League reach a settlement in their dispute over the rules that govern commercial deals.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

APT rules were only brought in at the end of 2021 or City would have been held to fair market value and not able to inflate deals so massively (no bad thing). Then City successfully challenged parts of those APT rules as other clubs had exempted shareholder funds.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

And the round-ups of anyone remotely connected to the Ukrainian state, military or civil servant, as we've already seen in Donbas, Crimea, Kherson and Kharkiv Oblast would at least bring the victims the comfort of knowing someone safely in the UK has successfully scored a minor political point.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

What do these people imagine will happen after Ukraine can no longer fight back?

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Then why didn't Trump simply end the war on day 1, as he promised 50+ times, and avoid any of this happening? Easiest thing ever, wasn't it?

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Only 2? Has Sawiris been worse than billionaire owners who don't happen to have brown skin? Ratcliffe, for example?

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Know he's just sold up but this shows how close that might be. Doesn't need to be family, just family interest: bsky.app/profile/ones...

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Eerily reminiscent of Worswick Street Bus Station.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Popped in to the Gomeran-German Greggs on the way back for the bus.

Pan de Vueltas, the German bakery in Valle Gran Rey

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

In case you're wondering about the technical quality of the football this far down the Spanish pyramid, there was just a loud thwack as two players absolutely blooted the ball at exactly the same time followed by a scream of "¡Hostia!" Full-blooded.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Better WiFi than Level 7 and you can bring your own cans and parasol.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Nipped up to see the freeloaders. "How much is it to get in?" "Three euros but the views are better up here."

Campo Municipal Playa del Ingles, Valle Gran.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Bus window views. Going up, going down...

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

International call-ups not an issue in the Tenerife Segunda Division Regional Grupo 3 so off to see CD Santos Reyes v CD Furia Arona at the Campo Municipal Playa del Ingles. But first a 1hr 40min bus ride up, around, around and back down the island (views: volcano, ocean, rainforest, ocean).

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

First look at Jeff sauntering on to the Sgt Peppers dance floor after Villa at home.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

But are we really suggesting what City did is the same as anyone but Chelsea? They were allowed to invest absolutely huge amounts within the rules, certainly up to around 2013, yet still flouted any limits. Not sure it's comparable to anything we've seen before. Nor is the wealth gap, of course.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

We were big 6 in the 90s but couldn't run up the losses City did. Jack Walker's Blackburn? They could for a bit but in the open and not on a scale that blew others into insignificance for a decade. Anchor spending, 100pc, put a transfer levy or proportional spending cap.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

But can we please stop pretending that this is about Manchester City discomforting the elite clubs? A lot of their hypocrisy is evident but cheating on this scale makes a mockery of us all.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Seriously, why do you give a shit what people like him have to say? I think I've heard him speak twice in my life. Easily avoided. I've also watched three Newcastle games against Man City this decade because it only half-felt like a real sport (other opinions are available)

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I think what we're really finding is that some people who complain about corruption and entrenched elites would be fine with all that as long as they were part of it.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Man City's reaction cynically plays to that. But those same people would have happily closed the door on those behind them in Apr '21 and joined the ESL. Hardly plucky upstarts fighting to overcome the system.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Linguistically, both are fine and it's just a matter of style. Some people prefer an s's where the syllable is pronounced /DJEIM-zuz/ and some people think it looks "clumsy and inelegant". But the stadium has almost always been St James', eg:

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Which is not to defend the status quo. I just don't think it's improved by adding 1-2 members who happen to have owners with massively deep pockets and thinking the gap to the rest is fine now it's below and not above.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

And that would be a lot better than doing a City and spending half that time in courts, right? Would the rules be as strict without City and Chelsea cheating? Maybe not. But I'm happy with my memory of a League Cup won within their confines.

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Michael Hudson @michaelhudson76.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Not all of them, no. But they might have been able to sign those kind of players now and dominate football for the next 10 years instead of cynically risking crashing their club into League Two or lower.

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