Apr 9
Have an interest in football memorabilia (and more besides)?
Please do visit the ‘Silent Auction’ and make a bid on anything that you think you want or that could be an ideal present. All for Bowker Vale School and help it in its dream to secure a safer, new key stage 1 playground for its’ youngest pupils.
I watched Olympiakos FC’s fans hanging banners and scarves on the main gate at Anfield this Week. Purely, a photograph opportunity before travelling the M62 to the ‘Theatre of Dreams” (home to Manchester United FC). It made me wonder if any attention had been given to the fact that both Galatasaray (Turkey) and Olympiakos (Greece) had entered our little Island for European fixtures this same week?
I’m only guessing there must have been some rivalry over the years between these big teams of sometimes opposing Nations. Certainly, in basketball a recent fixture kicked off – after an angry, reaction by a Brit.
Football rivalry abounds worldwide. In Greece, “Olympiakos v Panathinaikos – As well as the political tension between the two sides, Olympiakos are regarded as a working-class club, and Panathinaikos are billed as eternal enemies with feuds existing across Athens as well as on the pitch”.
Well I’ll need to learn more about any protocol both in Turkey-Greece relations; but also across the City of Athens. I have just been appointed Global Associate for Panathinaikos FC. The role particularly applies to Turkey and United Kingdom where I will be responsible for assisting the Club in strategic marketing and especially securing new sponsorship partnerships with significant corporates. Panathinaikos FC is a Greek Club based in Athens. Founded in 1908, it plays in the Super League Greece and is one of the oldest and most successful teams in Greek football. It has won 20 Greek Championships and 17 Greek Cups and is the best Greek club in terms of achievements in European competitions.
The debate is topical – with focus on Asian owners. I reported earlier in S’PORT about the lack of empathy in the Malaysian one changing the historic identity of Cardiff as ‘Bluebirds’. More recently, the Owner at Hull City has requested a name change to ‘Hull Tigers’ apparently to maximize marketing and merchandising value. I’m the first to appreciate heritage and thought a compromise could have been Hull City Tigers. In fact a solution first aired on TALKsport. I was taken to task by a young vociferous upstart, saying how would I like it if we became Stockport County Hatters. Well that option wouldn’t have bothered me. I retorted better than a former proposed ‘County Cobras’. Allegedly the Club’s worst sponsorship deal with a success fee only remuneration dependant on amount of Cobra Lager consumed in North West. I was informed it was single figures of crates in a season – this before Cobra established itself in the UK. The County Cobras quip was no doubt over his head – long before he supported our Club.
Fan ownership is gaining momentum. Surprisingly as though its never materialised before at Stockport! I’ll always remain positive about supporters engagement but when I see the new Board at the Stockport County Co-operative I suspect hidden agendas by some. Indeed, one source supposedly ‘in the know’ expects a rival bid from ‘same old faces’ (and manager) may derail the white knights from China. I would genuinely be interested if a part-share arrangement can’t result would the true County fans want the supporters to try and run the Club again – or let the Chinese Consortium have a go?
A stereotypical curse associated with French people – when actually they never use it. A bit like the guaranteed onions around the necks, striped sweat shirts and berets – somethings only non-French people think is typical of France. Anyway now that I’ve got your attention let’s talk about football in France. PSG as an outside bet on Champions League – No – we’re talking strikes, and believe me this population knows how to mount a strike!
Clubs in the Country are threatening to strike unless they are declared exempt from the 75%, so-called “super tax” on anyone earning more than one million euros in a given year. The Tax, which would in fact be a liability of the clubs rather than the players, could cost 44M for the relevant two years period. Government ministers say it is only fair to apply the tax to football clubs in the same way as any companies whose employees earn more than a million euros face that same levy.
S'PORT |blogging on football, finance and fans 