That he's such an all pervading evil shouldn't detract from the monstrous way he's behaved within football. If anything it exacerbates it.

Forza Italia indeed.

Symptom rather than cause, innit.

Melanie Sykes.

Fat 40 year olds wearing tight fitting replica shirts, face paint and a clueless bloke in a pub in Winchester circa 1998 complaining loudly that "Dwight Yorke never gets picked for Ingerland, it's a disgrace etc."

Oh, and Tim Lovejoy.

The Sheffield Wednesday band.

Who was the first "celebrity" (i.e. the football public/media in general actually knew who they were) chairman/owner? Bates? Sugar?

The fact that many, if not most, clubs are now viewed through the perspective of the repulsive types who own and/or control them is probably the most tiresome element to me.

The beast that was Robert Maxwell was an early celebrity owner.

Phoebe Disco wrote:

QUOTE:
The Sheffield Wednesday band.

Can you please stop calling them that?

How soon we forget:

Peter Kenyon.

''The fact that many, if not most, clubs are now viewed through the perspective of the repulsive types who own and/or control them is probably the most tiresome element to me.''

why?

The shade of Silvio Berlusconi darkens the thread once again . . .

Fred, I think that football supporters knew who the Edwards/Moores/Mears, etc. were (or at least recognised the names), it was just that the only reason that they were known was because they controlled a major football club. Berlusconi, Maxwell, Sugar, Tapie, etc. were known for other reasons before they bought football clubs (though buying those clubs increased their public profile significantly)

Because football to me is not about the owners of a club and the fact that we now have huge amounts of prominence and coverage given to them (see Abramovich, Madjeski, Sullivan & Gold in the last few days) is very, as I said, tiresome.

ursus arctos wrote:

QUOTE:
The shade of Silvio Berlusconi darkens the thread once again . . .

Fred, I think that football supporters knew who the Edwards/Moores/Mears, etc. were (or at least recognised the names), it was just that the only reason that they were known was because they controlled a major football club. Berlusconi, Maxwell, Sugar, Tapie, etc. were known for other reasons before they bought football clubs (though buying those clubs increased their public profile significantly)

Some supporters might have known their names (though mainly supporters of the clubs they owned) but we did not hear from and read about them every day as we now do. Not that I am kidding myself they weren't venal crooks as well.

But every time I see another aticle about "Liverpool's boardroom struggle", Mike Ashley, Shinawatra, or the thoughts of Jordan, Bates, Gaydamark, Ridsdale, Whelan or Fayed I die a little.

Agreed, though part of that is simply due to the explosion of football coverage in the UK over the period in question and the massive increase in the importance of transfer and contract dealings, etc. When each of the papers had a couple of pages (in season), it was easier to keep a low profile. The chairmen of "big" continental clubs were more widely known locally simply because the Gazzetta and its ilk have had to fill 4 to 6 pages a day with Inter (or Milan or Juve) news since the 50s.

Nah, the chairman of the italian club was always famous because he is the local prince, the local regional big man. Berlusconi, daddy moratti, agnelli, then cecchi gori, Tanzi, cragnotti, those parma crooks. It's just basically a cock-measuring contest for 20 century industrial warlords.