Martin Calladine

22 Jan 2024

🚨 Out now 🚨 NO QUESTIONS ASKED How football joined the crypto con What happened when football got into crypto? It's a tale of fraudsters, ghostship firms, bogus investments, pyramid schemes, gigantic losses and organised crime. Get your copy here: amzn.to/42aKE0w

Separate the art from the artist and all that, but jesus Thomas Hardy could be a really self-obsessed bastard.

@robfordmancs.bsky.social

I mean, either that or he really hated King Solomon's Mines.

Martin Calladine reposted

Rob Ford

I was having conversations with journalists just a few months ago about whether democracy was doomed. Look at this year: Orban defeated. Vukic defeated. Bolsonaro Jr defeated. Trump heading to likely defeat in midterms. That’s the beauty of democracy. Voters can respond. Don’t count it out yet.

That sad feeling when you see a player has been badly hurt and then realise it's not Deshaun Watson.

I'm hearing Deshaun Watson has four game winning drives this season. That's only 23 fewer than the number of women he was credibly accused of sexually assaulting, so who's to say if he's earned some acclaim.

The only reason to advance sports medicine is so that, when Deshaun Watson next gets a richly deserved agonising injury, he can be patched up and sent out to receive another torn achillies tendon.

It's great to have it confirmed that Amol Rajan is as completely mundane as he always appeared to be.

Emma Jacobs@emmavj.bsky.social

I don’t know. I don’t think you can be the millionth person to say this if you want clicks

The best thing that ever happened to him was BBC impartiality requirements protecting him from outing himself as a total dullard.

Martin Calladine reposted

Nick McGeehan

@ncgeehan.bsky.social

Lana Nusseibeh is a candidate for UN General Secretary. Here she is on an email chain where the UAE is trying to figure out how to escape accountability for violating a UN arms embargo in Libya.

Has America not suffered enough.

Martin Calladine reposted

bbc.co.ukAFC Wimbledon: Ex-Chelsea defender Ryan Bertrand part of £87m investment dealRyan Bertrand is leading a consortium that has proposed an £87m minority investment into League One side AFC Wimbledon.

I couldn't imagine handing over a massive chunk of the club, as well as operational control, to a tech investor with no ties to the club and, as part of it, bringing a hedge fund founder on to the board. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

Intriguingly, Omar Mir is listed as the Co-Chair of Europe & UK of G42, an AI company which appears to be owned by the Abu Dhabi. Board members include: Tahnoon bin Zayed and Khaldoon Al Mubarak.

I mean, I think there's a very basic question here: what is the likelihood that, in five years, a 49.9% stake in AFC Wimbledon (minus the ground) will be worth £87m plus whatever the new owner's desired rate of return? Can Ryan Bertrand, a former player and agent, make them worth £200m+? How?

Quite obviously, being advisor to the founder and CEO of a huge company is not the same as being the founder and CEO of a huge company.

Also intrigued by the sole funder, Baron of Thorntoun, appearing to have brought himself a lordship.

And, by now, I think we all know that being rich, confident and enthusiastic is not the same as having the requisite skills, experience and judgement to succeed in this endeavour.

Above all, there is no meaningful detail from the club about the source and level of the finances of the sole funder of the business. The information provided is superficially impressive but not meaningfully detailed.

Large minority stake sales only work in Germany because 50+1 is the law. English football is, by contrast, designed to create financial ruin.

Two of the five board appointments come from people with a player agent background. It does not appear that anyone who would now be in charge of the running the club has any actual experience of running a football club.

It's not something the Trust would do likely, but it's such a massive and irrevocable step* that I'd rather struggle to keep up than mortgage the club on the uncertain possibility of success.

* do lightly

As well as the sale, there's the placement of Bertrand in charge of football affairs. What evidence of experience and achievement is there that supports placing so much faith in him?

Fundamentally, there is no way of aligning the interests of two parties, one who want the club to exist forever as a community asset and another who wants the club to grow in value in a business where on pitch success and asset appreciation are fundamentally incompatible with financial prudence.

It's not something the Trust would do likely, but it's such a massive and irrevocable step* that I'd rather struggle to keep up than mortgage the club on the uncertain possibility of success.

* There is a right of first refusal on resale, but if the fans could raise that money, they wouldn't be selling half the club.

vanityfair.comThe Art of the Deal: Jared Kushner’s Hacked Phone Revealed More Than $700 Million in TransfersAn exclusive excerpt from ‘Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East’ examines how bank accounts linked the president’s son-in-law—and former sen...

Newcastle United's and Manchester City's owners sought to corrupt the US political process, providing a multi-billion dollar slush fund for the US president's son-in-law. Meanwhile, United are in midtable and City await their punishment for egregious cheating. www.vanityfair.com/story/jared-...

@againstleague3.bsky.social

Thomas Hardy: novelist, poet, originator of the 'he's 28 until he's 29' meme.

Martin Calladine reposted

Against League 3

Replying to @againstleague3.bsky.social

I'm genuinely not knocking anyone for how they spend their free time but I am incredibly interested in the life paths you've taken to either attend or participate in a strip show in the club bar at Banbury United.

Martin Calladine reposted

Chris Hayes

@chrislhayes.bsky.social

This is one of the most holy sh*t stories I’ve ever read in my life. www.vanityfair.com/story/jared-...

theguardian.comCyprus police investigate financial and tax affairs of ex-Chelsea owner Roman AbramovichInquiry follows report by Guardian and partners that aides of Russian oligarch appeared to have falsified paperwork mapping his businesses

You love to see it. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

josimarfootball.comA Norwegian Affair - josimarfootball.comEinar Bredo Johansen, former head of operations in Norway for Scandinavia's leading gambling company, Betsson, is named in the Curaçao Gaming Authority filings as the owner and CEO of K8, Atlético de ...

Atletico's illegal betting partner K8 - who previously sponsored West Brom, Cardiff, Man City and Wednesday - "declared revenue of 0 euro for the years 2022-24." This and much more in Josimar’s latest exploration of Curaçao's role in the dubious world of gambling. josimarfootball.com/2026/10/21/a...

"To some this might be one of the most controversial books ever written." What is it? Mein Kampf? The 120 Days of Sodom? Yellow Dog? No, it's Second Class - the new book by Sophie Corcoran. Even the "prologue" is a wearying read.

It's out now from Free Speech Press, the publishers of Liz Truss's new book. Their stable of authors is like a murder's row of cranks.

Truly gratifying to see your team ignore that absolute sack of shit Vance, with the exception of a player who, were he deported tomorrow or otherwise became a victim of the lawless white supremacy he supports, would go entirely unnoticed.

Razzball@razzball.bsky.social

JD Vance greeting Bengals players and most are ignoring him lol

pressgazette.co.ukReform says it has reported ITV to the police over undercover investigationReform accuses undercover journalists of "doctored" passport and canvassing-related offences.

The people who complain about activist lawyers and criminals getting legal aid and biased media and infringements of their free speech are the same who lie freely, make false reports to the police and use legal threats to suppress news and punish journalists. pressgazette.co.uk/news/reform-...

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en.wikipedia.orgLeones Vegetarianos FC - Wikipedia

"The club was founded as Vegetarianos CF by the Spaniard Juan Manuel Rojas, a vegetarian man from Granada who arrived in Equatorial Guinea in 2001 and years later went to India, where he staged a hunger strike." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leones_...

Martin Calladine reposted

wsj.comExclusive | Nearly All Volume on FIFA-Linked Prediction Market Is Circular TradingADI Predictstreet, backed by Abu Dhabi’s royal family, paid close to $150 million for advertising rights during the World Cup.

Earlier in the year, @josimarfootball.bsky.social ran a detailed investigation into ADI Predictstreet, which appeared from nowhere only weeks before it signed a $150m deal with Fifa. Sixth months on, per the WSJ, it seems almost no real betting takes place on the site. www.wsj.com/finance/near...

Him and tens of thousands of small business owners.

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