Outstanding summary Alfie. Unfortunately it would be impossible to see a report like this on any mainstream media channels. Please continue to highlight these issues in the way that you do. 👏🏾
As the person above said, The Athletic is very impressive, and if you can afford to spend money on football journalism sites, you might find it worthwhile my friend.
@@domtoug Ther Athletic is not really 'mainstream media'. That is arguable, of course. The term 'legacy media' can be quite useful, and the demographic division of media users must be kept in mind. We live in a world where most under about 40-50 now get their information from fairly independent online sources, while those older generally rely on radio, TV and newspapers. The former are funded by their users, the latter are long bought off by big business whose resources far exceed the importance of buyers or conventional advertisers. This is the real division between media types, as content generators for the latter must stay away from even *possibly* criticising the powerful. This is significant for football, but hugely significant for democracy.
@@lllordllloyd The Athletic is owned by the New York Times Company which owns the New York Times -- the newspaper of record in the United States. It doesn't get more mainstream than that.
You're not in favour of Saudis,ok. But since you're digging into human rights, why not banning teams from countries where Far Right parties are running the show....like Italy for instance fans, the league and its people in command are clearly closing their eyes to any sort of racism ... Why should we allow them to freely transfer ...where is the difference ?
@@thierryngoyi3188 I'm all for Saudi investment. They are free to spend their money where ever they want. I just appreciate a well researched look into a Sovereign State using their resources into helping football clubs circumvent the EFLs profit and sustainability rules. Whether a country is democratically ruled by a right or left wing government or is ruled by a non elected ruler has nothing to do with football. I do think that any racism in Leagues or by fans should obviously be harshly punished, but I dont get the argument that just because a bad things happen in Italian games, that makes the original argument invalid.
@Montebann I appreciate your feedback And I agree with what you have said. I just think (hope) football could be the right channel to ease injustices everywhere. We all love this sport. And I think it would be fabolous to have quality leagues all around the globe Again thanks for you insight 👍🏽
@@Montebannit's bs they invested in the investment firm years ago... it has nothing to do with anything. Its as silly as saying since they invested in twitter years ago they may boost nufc social media presence. Hypothetical nonsense.
@@user-cl5kj7oq6y mine is always Dick Van Dyke 😂😂 but I always have about two or three taking over City/United/Chelsea just so I can give Coventry (or whichever Ch club I pick) butt loads of cash to sign the Luton players 😂😂
It’s absolutely crazy of you to think that Koulibally who was before this last season one of the best, most sought after and highly rated defenders in Europe is SUDDENLY not worth even £20M because of ONE bad 1st season in a new league he’d never played in before in an already dysfunctional and unsettling chelsea team.
Desparate for him to come, want rid of him ten minutes later. Wannabe Barcelona. The players are only there for money anyway so it's not unsurprising or undeserved
@@LouisjamsonSaudi will give ridiculous wages to everyone just to make the proposition of coming there more lucrative. Do you really think Benzema deserves 200 million a year? irrespective of how good he is....
Hey Alfie, great video as usual! I know women's football isn't really the focus on this channel, but maybe since the world cup is coming up you could please do a video integrating the women's world cup, like maybe talking about the differences between the men's world cup and the women's world cup? I think it would be really cool and I know myself and other people I know who watch this channel would really enjoy it, we love this channel and appreciate all of your hard work :)
Ronaldo was a poor initial comparison as United and the player had already parted ways by mutual consent, after that, whatever happened, had no impact on United's accounts.
I would love for you to look into the Mexican Soccer Team! In fact, the whole Mexican Soccer system is in shambles. The Men keep losing to the US, the women failed to qualify for the Women’s World Cup, and the U-23 Mens team failed to qualify for the Olympics! I would love to see your insights on this matter!
Red Bull teams, City football group teams and Watford/Udinese/Girona owners have been moving players and coaches between the teams. These Chelsea tradings with Saudis, who are a marginal minority owners at Clearlake fall into same category, but aren't nowhere near as blatant as other examples. All of these are legal, althought not without problems.
don't forget football agents moving players between the clubs they have good relationships with. e.g. Jorge Mendes moving his players to/from Portuguese clubs, Wolves, Nottingham Forest/Olympiakos (same owner), Valencia, Monaco etc. Ultimately there's always some fishy things going on behind the scenes. No doubt Chelsea's dealings are, but are they really worse than the others? There's always gonna be gray areas. I guess it's a good thing people pay closer attention to them because of Chelsea now though
Never mind Chelsea just look at all the regulations that Man City are in violation of 115 and counting but does anyone think that the EPL will really do anything about it as long as the money keeps rolling on all it cares about is protecting its brand so its not in its interests to punish its own clubs especially now that Man City are European champions enhancing its image as the best league in the world
@@city6291 And you know that for a fact do you, given that FFP investigations can only start after each three year period concludes (this current one concluding 2024). So for all you know yes they could well be in violation
@@ammanus356 the current violations they're being accused of have more to due with artificially inflating their income which ended before or shortly after pep guardiola got hired. Looking at how little money we've spent compared to how successful we've been, I find it hard to believe it's even possible to violate FFP currently.
Sick of hearing this ,in the last 5 years we've had two all English finals and 3 different English teams win the UCL....the only other team that has won it is real mardrid ,we don't need to promote the pl in Europe we have the most competitive league in the world and literally in Europe
I left a comment under a community post about this subject and all I said was "you can see why people feel it should be investigated, after Chelsea broke records in spending despite lower revenue than normal" and good lord the Chelsea fans went WILD. The number of people who seemed to think I'd ordered the investigation and were demanding I explain EVERY facet of it was hilarious
Hey Alfie I'm trying to write my bachelor thesis on FFP in the premier league and would love to know where you get your sources from. Great video as always!
Generally speaking you would search for official FFP financial reports from the EPL,UEFA, etc. it might help to plot the data into charts and make some observations
@nicolasgmunder1004 Hey mate, the thesis sounds really interesting and I was just wondering what exactly you were studying to be able to have such a topic for your thesis as I‘m currently thinking of what to study after school
@@michaelgorodetsky I can't answer for them but Economics, PPE, Business Management all fit (this is very much an economics/accountancy/finance topic rather than sports)
@@emekaoguguo5023 if there was a connection between Saudi teams and Chelsea it would’ve been found out during the owners check before Clearlake was allowed to buy the team.
What about the rumour that Ruben Neves is going to Newcastle on loan? The saudi team buys him for 50 mill, pays 90% of his wages and Newcastle basically get a player for free with no impact on FFP. Thats a deal that would really question the integrity of the league.
To make a long story short, every dealing between Chelsea and Saudi Arabia is by the book but there will always be controversy because it is related to Chelsea and finances. A lot of times that they have been accused of doing wrong financially it has been the same story like this, innocent until proven guilty. Lets add the fact that every time they have been proven gulity they have served bans and sanctions like that first season with Lampard or the bullshit with Roman over the war. When people debate over how to fix our beautiful game i think they spend way too much time talking about Chelsea rather than the way bigger issues and factors that are in play. DO NOT GET ME WRONG i do not think Chelsea are Saints in this regard and have done no wrong, they have their fair share of mistakes as well. But there are bigger fish to fry in terms of protecting the integrity of the game.
@@zislow8016 We can focus on multiple issues, and I assure you people aren't forgetting about City, Newcastle, PSG, etc. All the multi-club ownership models are bad for the game. We're talking about Chelsea because this is just another level of attempting to break the game. Boehly and his strategy are nothing but bad for football
@@TwoPoachedEggs To be honest in some ways Todd and his consortium are essential to the game because of their wisdom and resourcefulness in the buisness side, by that i mean the way they find loopholes in the rules which need fixing right away. I am trying to say that it is better that they have been found out and sorted come July 1st. We need these type of people to expose the mistakes within the FA or UFEA or so and so. You know what i mean.
@zd2593 i do know what you mean but sadly it doesnt seem like FIFA nor UEFA can close the loopholes. Better to just recognize loopholes arent there to be abused unless you think like a sleazy businessman
Hey Alfie, another great video keep it up. I do however want to point put that you said Aubameyang has never played at a level as low as the Suadi league, when he has in fact played two games in the French fourth division, which you might be able to compare in regards to their quality.
all those player other than lukaku(who chelsea got an offer of £60m from saudi arabia) we sold in total for £40m. chelsea made more money selling in england(city,arsenal and untied, total of £150m) than sell to saudi arabia
@@skp8748Chelsea are having Garage Sell now and rivals dont like it. Like selling Jorginho just €12M, Koulibally £17M and Pulisic price tag now is minimum €20M
I'd like to put in another request for a video about the hypothetical First XI for the East African Federation if every theoretically-eligible player declared for them. The proposed nations for the Federation - it's a real project that's been rumbling towards completion for years - would comprise Burundi, the DR Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. None of them are footballing powerhouses on their own, or even arguably together, but there are a unexpected gems and we can dredge up a surprising amount of really good players who aren't Congolese, in addition to the vast swathes of the French and Belgian national team who'd be eligible through their parentage. Burundi, for instance, can offer Genk's Pro League assists leader Mike Tresor and OGC Nice's breakout left-back Youssouf Ndayishimiye. The point is, they're more than just hangers-on, and I think it would be interesting to see Alfie's take on it. This is request number 53. I have done a team sheet (complete with subs bench and even a stab at a kit design) and sent it to Alfie a while back via his Twitter DMs. I don't expect this to garner much of a response, but I have to keep asking on the off-chance he sees it here too. =]
It does feel like Abramovich's purchase of Chelsea in the early 2000s marked the beginning of the end. Football has always been a working class sport and the lifeblood of countless local communities around the world. Now, the ultra-rich have come sniffing, either because there's money to be made or because the person is so grossly wealthy that they fancy owning a club just for the craic. Sometimes, the interests of wealthy owners coincide with the interests of fans (ie: to see the club be successful on the pitch) but I and every other football fan I know have found myself feeling increasingly alienated by it all. A mickey mouse world cup in a despotic state, a treble-winning side that brazenly ignores financial rules, increasingly more football clubs being owned by literal countries. To use the cliche, the game is gone.
Say what you like about Ken Bates but at least he bought Chelsea for 1 pound lol. Admittedly, he was also the devil incarnate and thought the best thing for Chelsea was to have electric fences around the fans but still.
I just realised that inter’s Brozovic is moving to Saudi Arabia league too. Interesting fact is that Inter needs money to buy Lukaku from Chelsea. I start to think this is not a coincidence anymore.
On Koulibaly. Its not that sketchy. They bought him for about £33M and then had a particularly rough season for the whole team. His lower performance (like many Chelsea players last season) can be explained by: - An overhaul of the medical and fitness dept during the season. - Watered down training for a bloated squad. - A team struggling for cohesion with too much change too fast. So it is quite easy from that position to sell a player for a decent amount on the argument that form in a very disrupted season doesnt = talent. As well as this, it's the Saudi league. They aren't buying players to guarantee trophies. They're buying players for their individual branding. Some of these players may be past their prime but that means their names and reputations are known far and wide. That's what they are paying for.
I also don't think the argument of "why would they compete with themselves because they own Newcastle" doesn't hold as much weight as some might think. As the main purpose is not so much sporting success. It is more about sport washing and building relations and profits outside of the direct on the pitch success. If Saudi Arabia could own 2 premier league clubs they would do so.
18th request: Great video as always. You listened to you comments. Well done. Maybe there is hope yet that you will be doing a special on the seven players currently playing in the English football pyramid who are also playing for their country, such as Chris Morgan, who plays for Anguilla (the country) and Chalvey Sports FC, who play in the 11th tier of English football. There's others out there. Can you find them?!🙂
Actually the new players were better than the old, the problem was not money, it was lack of structure...yet, and a bloated squad. People talk without actual, indepth thinking
I’ve spent less than £10 on any of my clubs merchandise, tickets etc in the last 5 years. Not because I don’t support the team but clearly they don’t need my money. States getting involved with clubs when millionaires were crazy to even think of 30 years ago then billionaires, then groups now whole countries and states just makes me want to find a grassroots or smaller club in league 2 or 3 that I can support alongside
Correction - Al Nassr didn't offload CR7. The contract was already broken by that time. They didn't help Utd the same way they are helping Chelsea. Same with Benzema.
"Saudi Arabia is helping Wolves by buying Ruben Neves 😭" is what this sounds like. Chelsea need to sell and Saudi Arabia is buying. Is there any reason any team can't sell to Saudi? No. Chelsea is just taking advantage of an opportunity open to all
Those Chelsea figures are so eyewatering, how any club can operate like that and expect to survive is beyond me. Unless they are doing something dodgy.
People don’t seem to understand that it’s not entirely the transfer fees that help Chelsea, it’s getting out of the contracts that they have with these players that no one else will come near. Not too sure what the PL financial rules are, but take Barcelona for example. They have money, but can’t sign anyone due to the regulations of La Liga. Chelsea are getting fees and getting bailed out of contracts for players no one wants and that’s what fishy about it. It’s just too many Chelsea players and it’s sus. Doesn’t mean they’re guilty of course, just sus
I think this has been going for sometime, there are deals within deal, look at David Luiz's transfers, or Choupo-Moting or Arthur Melo, think plenty of deals have been accounting tricks. Player gets sold and then a business deal is done behind the scenes with other financial intrests.
Choupo-Moting never generated a transfer fee and scored 17 goals in 1800 min last season. Choupo-Moting earns 2.6 million € per season. He is no Lewandowski, but he is a cheap and reliable option for most teams, and once was the biggest hope for a number 9 in Germany when he scored 17 goals in a season for a bad club at age 20.
Agree with everything you said about billionaires, fan/state ownership. As a lifelong man United fan it is getting harder and harder to enjoy football let alone supporting a team. They all make it so unenjoyable with their bastardisation of the sport! Let’s all find non league teams to watch
I'm on the brink of turning away from the fanbase. Most united fans are willing to sell their own mother's if it gives their club a piece of silverware. How they are desperate for yet another middle Eastern sportswashing ownership is beyond me. Too bad we don't have a 50+1 rule..
@@Dave_ja_vu You are naive if you think there are clean billionaires. But the fact you only make it problem with "sportwashing" show that it works with american owner
@@eavyeavy2864 I literally mentioned greenwashing in the same sentence which is a problem the other potential owners bring. Stop running around defending the Qatari regime and you might have time to read full sentences
Your vids are always very well researched, your takes are objective and balanced and your politics are right-on. But one small criticism: Expressing footballers salaries as weekly amounts does nothing to clarify your message. Britain is the only place where this is done. I think it started in the 90s as salary inflation really took off and tabloid newspapers wanted their readers to be outraged by the amounts. However, when you say "the transfer fee when amortised is $10m a year and the salary is $100k a week" then you have unnecessarily obscured your point. I then have to make a calculation to work out what the annual liability is.
Another great video Alfie. Is there any chance you can do a video about the worst debuts in history. You could mention what occurred in the match, followed by whether it went on to have an effect on their rest of their time at the club or even if it was so bad it ruined a career. I'm sure there's been plenty youth players, but Joao Felix at Chelsea stands out to me last season.
Please make a video on the hypocrisy of football for ignoring the human rights violations of Israel and not banning them and sanctioning them similar to that has been done to Russia.
I do have a problem with people like Gary Neville criticising players going to Saudi Arabia. So Saudi Arabia is good enough to buy oil from to heat UK homes and use in cars but not good enough to sell footballers to. This constant attempt to disrespect other nations for having diffrent views is strange.
@@Westham_dan This is what happens when a club is sanctioned, cannot sell or buy any new players for a whole season and then give them a new ownership that was contractually obligated to spend copious amounts of money. After all the sales and winning the champions league, they will sort out FFP.
Yuuuupppp. Chelsea needs to sell a whole bunch of players because they went MAD. It'll end up being "legal" according to FFP. Ethical? Unlikely. But with the Saudis they are trying to fuck up the entire sport just to make themselves look better.
@@Westham_dan Chelsea spent a lot because they had no debt.... All the money was waived off by English govt forcing Roman to do that, only for the Govt to keep it in their pockets.
Have to say your perfectly placed random pics for laughs is brilliant. Particularly enjoyed Frank Lampard in this one and I'm always partial to Ndidi, Shaw and Watmore popping up from time to time!
The players being sold are worth more than we're getting i.e. Ziyech for 8 mil but I'm guessing the quick sales to get the wages off asap to get new blood in helps them take the but perse
I'm not sure there's too much malice here. Chelsea are having a fire sale and the Saudis are buying. They are selling at or well below market rate to get rid of the contracts. Now if the Saudis had say signed Lukaku for £100m that would be fishy, but giving him away at a huge loss doesn't seem like a big deal.
@@dan44zzt231exactly if they were overpaying this would make sense but this absolute codswallop they're buying players other clubs don't want to match Chelsea salaries
Here are two things that I would like to point out 1. Todd bohely spent a considerable amount of time making connections with Saudi officials for future endeavors, so this may be planned 2. all Chelsea players linked with the Saudi league practice the religion of Islam, the biggest one being Kante, who stated that his religion is the most important thing to him.
So a club full of mercenary players, are selling players to a mercenary league. Just like Oscar, Ramires, Diego Costa to China not many moons ago. Its smart business
We gave Juventus penalty for doing something similar with Barcelona, but when Chelsea does it, premier league shuts up. This owner literally have been exploiting loopholes only
In August 2022 Boehley’s Cain International signed a 900 million USD investment deal with the PIF, that would expand their influence in London real estate.
There is something mystifying about Chelsea's transfer dealings period. You'd think a fire sale would bid prices down but they're on the verge of getting £65m for an underperforming Havertz from Arsenal with no apparent competitive bids.. In that context, is Koulibaly such an outlier?
I am reminded of your Bulgarian school chum, the one who kept poking you with a pin on a school trip, and how he responded to your teach when asked, “who is the leader of Bulgaria?” “He is mafia,” was your prescient friends seemingly laconic response. Who are the owners of biggest European football clubs? They are criminal organization. They way seemingly collude to bypass regulations and bylaws of sport. It was hilarious when your screenshot of the clubs most likely to protest Chelsea’s FFP chicanery we’re three biggest financially dubious clubs on the planet, or in the Universe.
Watching this while eating, then Alfie suggests we descend into cannibalism.... 💀😂 Good summary of the situation as it stands for now (as usual) regardless of whether we eat the rich or not.
You said in the last Saudi video that like China, there would be a transfer of a player wanted by top European clubs at the time - could Ruben neves be the catalyst for Europe becoming worried about the Saudi league?
As a personal scoff at the comparison between Chelsea and Newcastle, in my view, SA does not care about revenue, profit, or success of its commercial sporting ventures. Doing anything to "assist" Chelsea at the potential expense of a direct competitor means nothing to them. If Newcastle underachieves over the next 3-5 years, they will simply sell the team at a loss and cut their losses, just like China did to their entire league. Look at LIV Golf. That breakaway was never intended to challenge or overtake the PGA in terms of US-based business, but to buy influence in the sport that they are now cashing in on. The same applies to football. They are buying influence, at individual clubs, in leagues, with FAs, that they can potentially use in the future for political or financial gain. If the SPL clubs were personally-owned, it would be a non-issue, but since we are only talking about clubs which are expressly owned by the gov't, any and all eyebrows must be raised.
I don't get Cucurella and Fofana at 140 mill. I just don't get it... Most other teams in the EFL would pay that for their starting 11... And they had poor seasons...
I'll be honest, the video doesn't make sense how KSA is helping Chelsea cheat when it's the player that has the final say. Even washed-up Auba is exercising his power. Hakim Ziyech reached the WC semi-finals and makes commercial sense. Koulibaly may be weird but again he has the final say to "nuke" his career. Kante is considered a legend so makes commercial sense and is muslim. Point is all these players could say no but didnt.
alfie, what do you think of the idea of replacing the opaque transfer system with it's super agents and backroom deals, with an open and transparent player auction?
@@bademann1 Indian cricket premier league uses player auctions and NFL, NBA, MLB drafts are all player auctions and they all work pretty well even with players' preferences and salaries considered. Things can never work in reality until they actually do.
@@babadoom8972 the draft situations are not for players already on contract with another team. You can't just decide to auction a player in the middle of an agreement. It's a stupid suggestion.
@@babadoom8972 How would this ever work though? A club just decides certain players are up for auction, send them out to the highest bidder? Even in a draft style situation the player can decide not to sign with a team. What happens if a club "wins" an auction and then the player refuses to play for them? How do you propose we resolve that situation? What time frame do you put on each player being auctioned off? How does a club know what to bid on players when they don't know what bids will come in for other targets or for their players for sale either? It's a bad situation for clubs, and even worse for the players involved.
Regarding the Premier League introducing new rules around transfer scrutiny - don't forget the other rich person powerplay going on at the moment - the move for an external regulator
Outstanding summary Alfie. Unfortunately it would be impossible to see a report like this on any mainstream media channels. Please continue to highlight these issues in the way that you do. 👏🏾
The Athletic has reported extensively on this exact story
As the person above said, The Athletic is very impressive, and if you can afford to spend money on football journalism sites, you might find it worthwhile my friend.
@@domtoug Ther Athletic is not really 'mainstream media'. That is arguable, of course. The term 'legacy media' can be quite useful, and the demographic division of media users must be kept in mind.
We live in a world where most under about 40-50 now get their information from fairly independent online sources, while those older generally rely on radio, TV and newspapers. The former are funded by their users, the latter are long bought off by big business whose resources far exceed the importance of buyers or conventional advertisers. This is the real division between media types, as content generators for the latter must stay away from even *possibly* criticising the powerful.
This is significant for football, but hugely significant for democracy.
@@felixcrookston2237😂😂
@@lllordllloyd The Athletic is owned by the New York Times Company which owns the New York Times -- the newspaper of record in the United States. It doesn't get more mainstream than that.
Hard hitting football journalism. Love it.
You're not in favour of Saudis,ok.
But since you're digging into human rights, why not banning teams from countries where Far Right parties are running the show....like Italy for instance fans, the league and its people in command are clearly closing their eyes to any sort of racism ...
Why should we allow them to freely transfer ...where is the difference ?
@@thierryngoyi3188 I'm all for Saudi investment. They are free to spend their money where ever they want.
I just appreciate a well researched look into a Sovereign State using their resources into helping football clubs circumvent the EFLs profit and sustainability rules. Whether a country is democratically ruled by a right or left wing government or is ruled by a non elected ruler has nothing to do with football.
I do think that any racism in Leagues or by fans should obviously be harshly punished, but I dont get the argument that just because a bad things happen in Italian games, that makes the original argument invalid.
@Montebann I appreciate your feedback
And I agree with what you have said. I just think (hope) football could be the right channel to ease injustices everywhere. We all love this sport. And I think it would be fabolous to have quality leagues all around the globe
Again thanks for you insight 👍🏽
@@Montebannit's bs they invested in the investment firm years ago... it has nothing to do with anything. Its as silly as saying since they invested in twitter years ago they may boost nufc social media presence. Hypothetical nonsense.
@@thierryngoyi3188 Racism kept your people safe for 1000s of years. Its only you that has become the coward
It’s like when you add yourself as a manager of a different team on footy manager and buy all the dross from your actual team
Not that anyone here would ever do that... No sir. Never. Not at all...
Literally every single game 😂😂
I always preferred to just use the editor and move players to my affiliate clubs ahahha
@@maciejbala477 Its weird but to me it isn't *really* cheating if you hijack other teams... But Editor is 100% unless you're creating your club.
Always name my additional manager Johnny Cash 😂
@@user-cl5kj7oq6y mine is always Dick Van Dyke 😂😂 but I always have about two or three taking over City/United/Chelsea just so I can give Coventry (or whichever Ch club I pick) butt loads of cash to sign the Luton players 😂😂
It’s absolutely crazy of you to think that Koulibally who was before this last season one of the best, most sought after and highly rated defenders in Europe is SUDDENLY not worth even £20M because of ONE bad 1st season in a new league he’d never played in before in an already dysfunctional and unsettling chelsea team.
Desparate for him to come, want rid of him ten minutes later. Wannabe Barcelona. The players are only there for money anyway so it's not unsurprising or undeserved
It’s not the 25m it’s the 50m wages
@@LouisjamsonSaudi will give ridiculous wages to everyone just to make the proposition of coming there more lucrative. Do you really think Benzema deserves 200 million a year? irrespective of how good he is....
Koulibaly had £55m left on his Chelsea contract, so the move to KSA gets them out of a £75m hole, not a £20m one
@@V79K not the point no one else wants him so they don’t have to pay the fee
Hey Alfie, great video as usual! I know women's football isn't really the focus on this channel, but maybe since the world cup is coming up you could please do a video integrating the women's world cup, like maybe talking about the differences between the men's world cup and the women's world cup? I think it would be really cool and I know myself and other people I know who watch this channel would really enjoy it, we love this channel and appreciate all of your hard work :)
I have a video on why women's football is so hated if that helps :))
Ronaldo was a poor initial comparison as United and the player had already parted ways by mutual consent, after that, whatever happened, had no impact on United's accounts.
I would love for you to look into the Mexican Soccer Team! In fact, the whole Mexican Soccer system is in shambles. The Men keep losing to the US, the women failed to qualify for the Women’s World Cup, and the U-23 Mens team failed to qualify for the Olympics! I would love to see your insights on this matter!
Ultimate farmers league
@@A_r78least xenophobic European
Wtf?! Nothing to Do with xenophobia
How’s Brazil doing?
I would pay hundreds to see Kai Havertz make an angry rant in Arabic.
He's in Arsenal sadly
that's oddly specific lmao, now i got the image stuck in my head. Wearing Muslim clothes too
@@maciejbala477no such thing as muslim clothes.
@@skp8748yeah they’re called rags
@@A_r78 go cry about not being able to be mounted by another man everywhere in the world😂
Red Bull teams, City football group teams and Watford/Udinese/Girona owners have been moving players and coaches between the teams. These Chelsea tradings with Saudis, who are a marginal minority owners at Clearlake fall into same category, but aren't nowhere near as blatant as other examples. All of these are legal, althought not without problems.
don't forget football agents moving players between the clubs they have good relationships with. e.g. Jorge Mendes moving his players to/from Portuguese clubs, Wolves, Nottingham Forest/Olympiakos (same owner), Valencia, Monaco etc. Ultimately there's always some fishy things going on behind the scenes. No doubt Chelsea's dealings are, but are they really worse than the others? There's always gonna be gray areas. I guess it's a good thing people pay closer attention to them because of Chelsea now though
Redbull too
They are not marginal minority owners in Clearlake. They are Limited partners meaning no voting rights or power over investments
You don’t just get this level of reporting anywhere,you truly are next level
It's all baseless nonsense.
He's just regurgitating the article from The Athletic
@@skp8748 You're entitled to your opinion, Sheik.
Never mind Chelsea just look at all the regulations that Man City are in violation of 115 and counting but does anyone think that the EPL will really do anything about it as long as the money keeps rolling on all it cares about is protecting its brand so its not in its interests to punish its own clubs especially now that Man City are European champions enhancing its image as the best league in the world
The charges have nothing to do with the current team. Completely different squad, and this squad who won the Treble is not in violation of FFP
The PL are weak as fcuk. FIFA and UEFA love a piece of corruption
@@city6291 And you know that for a fact do you, given that FFP investigations can only start after each three year period concludes (this current one concluding 2024). So for all you know yes they could well be in violation
@@ammanus356 the current violations they're being accused of have more to due with artificially inflating their income which ended before or shortly after pep guardiola got hired. Looking at how little money we've spent compared to how successful we've been, I find it hard to believe it's even possible to violate FFP currently.
Sick of hearing this ,in the last 5 years we've had two all English finals and 3 different English teams win the UCL....the only other team that has won it is real mardrid ,we don't need to promote the pl in Europe we have the most competitive league in the world and literally in Europe
I left a comment under a community post about this subject and all I said was "you can see why people feel it should be investigated, after Chelsea broke records in spending despite lower revenue than normal" and good lord the Chelsea fans went WILD. The number of people who seemed to think I'd ordered the investigation and were demanding I explain EVERY facet of it was hilarious
Sounds closer to mutual interest to me rather than outright cheating
I do not think Alfie likes Chelsea
The term your looking for is conflict of interest. The issue isn't the transfers it's the fees. The Koulibaly transfer is a blatant example of this.
@@tracymorgansbelly3322are you joking ? 25 million is fine
Still kinda evil
Hey Alfie I'm trying to write my bachelor thesis on FFP in the premier league and would love to know where you get your sources from. Great video as always!
Generally speaking you would search for official FFP financial reports from the EPL,UEFA, etc. it might help to plot the data into charts and make some observations
Given that they are all Plc’s you can look on companies house at financial statements from PY etc and the disclosures within which should include FFP.
@nicolasgmunder1004 Hey mate, the thesis sounds really interesting and I was just wondering what exactly you were studying to be able to have such a topic for your thesis as I‘m currently thinking of what to study after school
@@michaelgorodetsky I can't answer for them but Economics, PPE, Business Management all fit (this is very much an economics/accountancy/finance topic rather than sports)
@@NetanelKleinmanyeah makes sense, thank you💪
Chelsea offloading players to Saudi is cheating while Man City wins a treble with 100+ FFP charges looming… makes sense 👍🏻
I don’t think these are mutually exclusive entities
There is still a large cloud over Man City’s achievements
@@emekaoguguo5023 if there was a connection between Saudi teams and Chelsea it would’ve been found out during the owners check before Clearlake was allowed to buy the team.
Remember that charges don't necessarily mean guilt.
@@edwardking9359 enough evidence or accusations to field over charges seems a little guilty to me
What about the rumour that Ruben Neves is going to Newcastle on loan? The saudi team buys him for 50 mill, pays 90% of his wages and Newcastle basically get a player for free with no impact on FFP. Thats a deal that would really question the integrity of the league.
People when Chelsea buy players: 😡🤬
People when Chelsea sell players: 😡🤬
😂😂😂😂
😂😂😂
To make a long story short, every dealing between Chelsea and Saudi Arabia is by the book but there will always be controversy because it is related to Chelsea and finances. A lot of times that they have been accused of doing wrong financially it has been the same story like this, innocent until proven guilty. Lets add the fact that every time they have been proven gulity they have served bans and sanctions like that first season with Lampard or the bullshit with Roman over the war. When people debate over how to fix our beautiful game i think they spend way too much time talking about Chelsea rather than the way bigger issues and factors that are in play. DO NOT GET ME WRONG i do not think Chelsea are Saints in this regard and have done no wrong, they have their fair share of mistakes as well. But there are bigger fish to fry in terms of protecting the integrity of the game.
Exactly. Focussing on possible Chelsea involvement with Saudi Arabia while City run away with the title each year under UAE ownership feels a bit odd
@@zislow8016 We can focus on multiple issues, and I assure you people aren't forgetting about City, Newcastle, PSG, etc. All the multi-club ownership models are bad for the game. We're talking about Chelsea because this is just another level of attempting to break the game. Boehly and his strategy are nothing but bad for football
@@TwoPoachedEggs To be honest in some ways Todd and his consortium are essential to the game because of their wisdom and resourcefulness in the buisness side, by that i mean the way they find loopholes in the rules which need fixing right away. I am trying to say that it is better that they have been found out and sorted come July 1st. We need these type of people to expose the mistakes within the FA or UFEA or so and so. You know what i mean.
@zd2593 i do know what you mean but sadly it doesnt seem like FIFA nor UEFA can close the loopholes. Better to just recognize loopholes arent there to be abused unless you think like a sleazy businessman
@@TwoPoachedEggs Agreed, although we can clearly see that even if they're cheating, Chelsea have a lot of work to do lmao
Hey Alfie, another great video keep it up. I do however want to point put that you said Aubameyang has never played at a level as low as the Suadi league, when he has in fact played two games in the French fourth division, which you might be able to compare in regards to their quality.
all those player other than lukaku(who chelsea got an offer of £60m from saudi arabia) we sold in total for £40m. chelsea made more money selling in england(city,arsenal and untied, total of £150m) than sell to saudi arabia
Many reports are reporting the Koulibaly deal for 17Mn Pounds and Ziyech as 8Mn Pounds
So what's the problem?
@@skp8748 rival fans are bitter chelsea are sorting out their player crisis
@@skp8748Chelsea are having Garage Sell now and rivals dont like it. Like selling Jorginho just €12M, Koulibally £17M and Pulisic price tag now is minimum €20M
I'd like to put in another request for a video about the hypothetical First XI for the East African Federation if every theoretically-eligible player declared for them. The proposed nations for the Federation - it's a real project that's been rumbling towards completion for years - would comprise Burundi, the DR Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. None of them are footballing powerhouses on their own, or even arguably together, but there are a unexpected gems and we can dredge up a surprising amount of really good players who aren't Congolese, in addition to the vast swathes of the French and Belgian national team who'd be eligible through their parentage. Burundi, for instance, can offer Genk's Pro League assists leader Mike Tresor and OGC Nice's breakout left-back Youssouf Ndayishimiye. The point is, they're more than just hangers-on, and I think it would be interesting to see Alfie's take on it.
This is request number 53. I have done a team sheet (complete with subs bench and even a stab at a kit design) and sent it to Alfie a while back via his Twitter DMs. I don't expect this to garner much of a response, but I have to keep asking on the off-chance he sees it here too. =]
It does feel like Abramovich's purchase of Chelsea in the early 2000s marked the beginning of the end. Football has always been a working class sport and the lifeblood of countless local communities around the world. Now, the ultra-rich have come sniffing, either because there's money to be made or because the person is so grossly wealthy that they fancy owning a club just for the craic.
Sometimes, the interests of wealthy owners coincide with the interests of fans (ie: to see the club be successful on the pitch) but I and every other football fan I know have found myself feeling increasingly alienated by it all. A mickey mouse world cup in a despotic state, a treble-winning side that brazenly ignores financial rules, increasingly more football clubs being owned by literal countries. To use the cliche, the game is gone.
I feel exactly the same. think it's time to go more regularly to my local non league side and support local football in general.
It's only 'gone' if your team doesn't benefit.
Say what you like about Ken Bates but at least he bought Chelsea for 1 pound lol. Admittedly, he was also the devil incarnate and thought the best thing for Chelsea was to have electric fences around the fans but still.
@@Alfie_1 he built Chelsea up so that it was an attractive proposition for Abramovich
It’s quite easy to ignore the major football leagues and FIFA.
I just realised that inter’s Brozovic is moving to Saudi Arabia league too. Interesting fact is that Inter needs money to buy Lukaku from Chelsea. I start to think this is not a coincidence anymore.
The best football journalist out there. Entertaining and informative, got to love those barbed digs you frequently drop in
Great stuff, Alfie. Tbf, Al Hilal did just sign Ruben Neves so there's a chance Coutinho could still find himself in Riyadh or Jeddah.
On Koulibaly. Its not that sketchy. They bought him for about £33M and then had a particularly rough season for the whole team. His lower performance (like many Chelsea players last season) can be explained by:
- An overhaul of the medical and fitness dept during the season.
- Watered down training for a bloated squad.
- A team struggling for cohesion with too much change too fast.
So it is quite easy from that position to sell a player for a decent amount on the argument that form in a very disrupted season doesnt = talent. As well as this, it's the Saudi league. They aren't buying players to guarantee trophies. They're buying players for their individual branding. Some of these players may be past their prime but that means their names and reputations are known far and wide. That's what they are paying for.
£25m for one of the best defenders in Europe up until last season is unfathomable? Very nice basis
Day 1: 7 famous footballers who failed financially (After they got rich from playing football)
Someone standing up to Simon Jordan and holding their own. We need more guys like O'Neil
I also don't think the argument of "why would they compete with themselves because they own Newcastle" doesn't hold as much weight as some might think. As the main purpose is not so much sporting success. It is more about sport washing and building relations and profits outside of the direct on the pitch success. If Saudi Arabia could own 2 premier league clubs they would do so.
Though the more clubs they have, the more chance that one of them wins. Doesn't matter which.
Saudi doesn't need to sportswash anything.
@@skp8748 oh hey it's MBS
@@T.E.S.S. grow up and stop regurgitating silly headlines
18th request: Great video as always. You listened to you comments. Well done. Maybe there is hope yet that you will be doing a special on the seven players currently playing in the English football pyramid who are also playing for their country, such as Chris Morgan, who plays for Anguilla (the country) and Chalvey Sports FC, who play in the 11th tier of English football. There's others out there. Can you find them?!🙂
Simple. Chelsea has the most players to sell. Saudi League wants to buy the most players. Seems pretty simple to me.
Great analysis
Expensive players worked so well for Chelsea last season
They'll be even better this season up the chels 💙🤍
Actually the new players were better than the old, the problem was not money, it was lack of structure...yet, and a bloated squad. People talk without actual, indepth thinking
I’ve spent less than £10 on any of my clubs merchandise, tickets etc in the last 5 years. Not because I don’t support the team but clearly they don’t need my money. States getting involved with clubs when millionaires were crazy to even think of 30 years ago then billionaires, then groups now whole countries and states just makes me want to find a grassroots or smaller club in league 2 or 3 that I can support alongside
Sadly non league football is dying slowly
Correction - Al Nassr didn't offload CR7. The contract was already broken by that time. They didn't help Utd the same way they are helping Chelsea. Same with Benzema.
How are they helping CFC, proof?.
"Saudi Arabia is helping Wolves by buying Ruben Neves 😭" is what this sounds like.
Chelsea need to sell and Saudi Arabia is buying. Is there any reason any team can't sell to Saudi? No.
Chelsea is just taking advantage of an opportunity open to all
Those Chelsea figures are so eyewatering, how any club can operate like that and expect to survive is beyond me. Unless they are doing something dodgy.
People don’t seem to understand that it’s not entirely the transfer fees that help Chelsea, it’s getting out of the contracts that they have with these players that no one else will come near. Not too sure what the PL financial rules are, but take Barcelona for example. They have money, but can’t sign anyone due to the regulations of La Liga. Chelsea are getting fees and getting bailed out of contracts for players no one wants and that’s what fishy about it. It’s just too many Chelsea players and it’s sus. Doesn’t mean they’re guilty of course, just sus
Love your vids mate. Keep up the great work 👍
I think this has been going for sometime, there are deals within deal, look at David Luiz's transfers, or Choupo-Moting or Arthur Melo, think plenty of deals have been accounting tricks. Player gets sold and then a business deal is done behind the scenes with other financial intrests.
Choupo-Moting never generated a transfer fee and scored 17 goals in 1800 min last season. Choupo-Moting earns 2.6 million € per season. He is no Lewandowski, but he is a cheap and reliable option for most teams, and once was the biggest hope for a number 9 in Germany when he scored 17 goals in a season for a bad club at age 20.
Awesome work. Appreciate the effort and research you put into your craft. Thank you
A St Pauli perspective of the current situation at Chelsea. "You can't put a price on a 12th place finish!" A quote for the annals of history.
The opening line of this video is a bar. Alfie is going in hard.
Niiiice🎉 Watching this while eating breakfast. Cheers mate!
In real fine form here, Alfie. Excellent work. Loved the jabs healthily sprinkled throughout.
Agree with everything you said about billionaires, fan/state ownership. As a lifelong man United fan it is getting harder and harder to enjoy football let alone supporting a team. They all make it so unenjoyable with their bastardisation of the sport! Let’s all find non league teams to watch
It's about to get worse for United fans with any sort of moral compass too. Either going to be a tool for sportswashing or greenwashing
I'm on the brink of turning away from the fanbase. Most united fans are willing to sell their own mother's if it gives their club a piece of silverware. How they are desperate for yet another middle Eastern sportswashing ownership is beyond me.
Too bad we don't have a 50+1 rule..
Being united fan is synonymous with hypocryte
@@Dave_ja_vu You are naive if you think there are clean billionaires. But the fact you only make it problem with "sportwashing" show that it works with american owner
@@eavyeavy2864 I literally mentioned greenwashing in the same sentence which is a problem the other potential owners bring. Stop running around defending the Qatari regime and you might have time to read full sentences
Your vids are always very well researched, your takes are objective and balanced and your politics are right-on. But one small criticism: Expressing footballers salaries as weekly amounts does nothing to clarify your message. Britain is the only place where this is done. I think it started in the 90s as salary inflation really took off and tabloid newspapers wanted their readers to be outraged by the amounts. However, when you say "the transfer fee when amortised is $10m a year and the salary is $100k a week" then you have unnecessarily obscured your point. I then have to make a calculation to work out what the annual liability is.
Another great video Alfie. Is there any chance you can do a video about the worst debuts in history. You could mention what occurred in the match, followed by whether it went on to have an effect on their rest of their time at the club or even if it was so bad it ruined a career. I'm sure there's been plenty youth players, but Joao Felix at Chelsea stands out to me last season.
Ali Dia
Hakim played fantastic at the world cup. So he is a great soccer player who is hardly used well
Please make a video on the hypocrisy of football for ignoring the human rights violations of Israel and not banning them and sanctioning them similar to that has been done to Russia.
I do have a problem with people like Gary Neville criticising players going to Saudi Arabia. So Saudi Arabia is good enough to buy oil from to heat UK homes and use in cars but not good enough to sell footballers to. This constant attempt to disrespect other nations for having diffrent views is strange.
OMG - HALF A BILLION ON TRANSFERS?! I knew they had blown wads of cash on this years team but I lost track of just how bonkers it got.
City and UTD do the same...
@@skp8748quite literally no one has even come close to spending this amount of money
@@Westham_dan This is what happens when a club is sanctioned, cannot sell or buy any new players for a whole season and then give them a new ownership that was contractually obligated to spend copious amounts of money. After all the sales and winning the champions league, they will sort out FFP.
Yuuuupppp. Chelsea needs to sell a whole bunch of players because they went MAD. It'll end up being "legal" according to FFP. Ethical? Unlikely. But with the Saudis they are trying to fuck up the entire sport just to make themselves look better.
@@Westham_dan Chelsea spent a lot because they had no debt.... All the money was waived off by English govt forcing Roman to do that, only for the Govt to keep it in their pockets.
I find it hard to believe Chelsea would have spent that much in January if they didn’t have this summer business lined up
Have to say your perfectly placed random pics for laughs is brilliant. Particularly enjoyed Frank Lampard in this one and I'm always partial to Ndidi, Shaw and Watmore popping up from time to time!
Adu, Hoever
Alfie out here putting the mainstream media to shame.
As a Wolves fan, I am utterly disgusted that clubs are using the Saudi Pro League to get inflated values for players😡. I'm glad we don't do this.... 🐺
It sounds oddly familiar to similar case a few years ago.
Ruben Neves:
You sold Ruben Neves for 50Mn *cough*
The players being sold are worth more than we're getting i.e. Ziyech for 8 mil but I'm guessing the quick sales to get the wages off asap to get new blood in helps them take the but perse
have u not seen that the saudis/newcastle owner group have put like 900m or something in the club
@@sebastiangreen4995not in the club, and it’s 900m of over 300b in assets
I'm not sure there's too much malice here. Chelsea are having a fire sale and the Saudis are buying. They are selling at or well below market rate to get rid of the contracts. Now if the Saudis had say signed Lukaku for £100m that would be fishy, but giving him away at a huge loss doesn't seem like a big deal.
@@dan44zzt231exactly if they were overpaying this would make sense but this absolute codswallop they're buying players other clubs don't want to match Chelsea salaries
This is why i love swedish football. The supporters Own 51% of the club.
Here are two things that I would like to point out
1. Todd bohely spent a considerable amount of time making connections with Saudi officials for future endeavors, so this may be planned
2. all Chelsea players linked with the Saudi league practice the religion of Islam, the biggest one being Kante, who stated that his religion is the most important thing to him.
This video pulls no punches. I love it!
They are 100% helping Chelsea cheat but I’m fine with it since I like creativity and this is an outside the box move
Was waiting for this video to drop 😅
Hi Alfie, you should do a video about what is going on with Fleetwood Town's owner
So a club full of mercenary players, are selling players to a mercenary league. Just like Oscar, Ramires, Diego Costa to China not many moons ago. Its smart business
We gave Juventus penalty for doing something similar with Barcelona, but when Chelsea does it, premier league shuts up. This owner literally have been exploiting loopholes only
Ur Videos get better and better year after year ❤️
People calling every nonsense from this channel brave and amazing.😂 Never gets old.
In August 2022 Boehley’s Cain International signed a 900 million USD investment deal with the PIF, that would expand their influence in London real estate.
Oh the irony of the premier league elistist bothered by a league inflating the market with big money offers
Keep up the good work bro
If they are they sure are doing a bad job of it judging how dire Chelsea were throughout last season
Use your brain
Amazing work Alfie! Keep it up!
Best footy journalist on RUclips ever!
Excellent analysis Alfie. Kante would find it less daunting than someone like Jack Grealish made me smile.
This was well put together
Thank you for being a voice of reason in all of this, Alfie.
But as long as the rich are getting richer from this, nothing will change.
United fan talk about rich 🤣
There is something mystifying about Chelsea's transfer dealings period. You'd think a fire sale would bid prices down but they're on the verge of getting £65m for an underperforming Havertz from Arsenal with no apparent competitive bids.. In that context, is Koulibaly such an outlier?
Bayern bid for Havertz
I am reminded of your Bulgarian school chum, the one who kept poking you with a pin on a school trip, and how he responded to your teach when asked, “who is the leader of Bulgaria?” “He is mafia,” was your prescient friends seemingly laconic response. Who are the owners of biggest European football clubs? They are criminal organization. They way seemingly collude to bypass regulations and bylaws of sport. It was hilarious when your screenshot of the clubs most likely to protest Chelsea’s FFP chicanery we’re three biggest financially dubious clubs on the planet, or in the Universe.
What happens to the initial fee if the player is sold b4 the contract ends?
Watching this while eating, then Alfie suggests we descend into cannibalism.... 💀😂 Good summary of the situation as it stands for now (as usual) regardless of whether we eat the rich or not.
They did sign Neves though, who is far younger. They even paid a fortune for a player in the last year of his contract.
so far that is the one exception
Always have a dig at ronaldo
Keep it up
Aka the petulant one
To get rid of chelsea dead wood you need to get rid of the whole club 😂
Superb video! You are my favourite football journalist!
You said in the last Saudi video that like China, there would be a transfer of a player wanted by top European clubs at the time - could Ruben neves be the catalyst for Europe becoming worried about the Saudi league?
Not even in the slightest 😂
Why is Europe the only guys that are allowed top players???
@@ezekieltete6584 because it’s the only league system that has any prestige 😂
The content from this channel is just top quality stuff everytime
What about Neves and Benzema transfers? Shoudnt they be investigated as well?
Another great video, will miss you after your mysterious disappearance following a visit from the Saudis but until then.. Bravo!
Only 2 minutes in, but looking forward to it, not sure there is anybody in the world I would trust more to be impartial and accurate.
Was waiting on this video
Wow They are paying Koulibaly 295k a week? thats insane. Salah is only earning 350k a week.
As a personal scoff at the comparison between Chelsea and Newcastle, in my view, SA does not care about revenue, profit, or success of its commercial sporting ventures. Doing anything to "assist" Chelsea at the potential expense of a direct competitor means nothing to them. If Newcastle underachieves over the next 3-5 years, they will simply sell the team at a loss and cut their losses, just like China did to their entire league. Look at LIV Golf. That breakaway was never intended to challenge or overtake the PGA in terms of US-based business, but to buy influence in the sport that they are now cashing in on. The same applies to football. They are buying influence, at individual clubs, in leagues, with FAs, that they can potentially use in the future for political or financial gain. If the SPL clubs were personally-owned, it would be a non-issue, but since we are only talking about clubs which are expressly owned by the gov't, any and all eyebrows must be raised.
You’re the best, Alfie.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers mate!
I’m going to go out on a limb and say Alfie isn’t a fan of Saudi Arabia
No logic as well
0:06 Damn, Alfie. Shots fired. Wait, wrong wording...
I don't get Cucurella and Fofana at 140 mill. I just don't get it...
Most other teams in the EFL would pay that for their starting 11...
And they had poor seasons...
I'll be honest, the video doesn't make sense how KSA is helping Chelsea cheat when it's the player that has the final say.
Even washed-up Auba is exercising his power.
Hakim Ziyech reached the WC semi-finals and makes commercial sense.
Koulibaly may be weird but again he has the final say to "nuke" his career.
Kante is considered a legend so makes commercial sense and is muslim. Point is all these players could say no but didnt.
alfie, what do you think of the idea of replacing the opaque transfer system with it's super agents and backroom deals, with an open and transparent player auction?
What about the players preference and salary? Would never work in reality.
@@bademann1 Indian cricket premier league uses player auctions and NFL, NBA, MLB drafts are all player auctions and they all work pretty well even with players' preferences and salaries considered. Things can never work in reality until they actually do.
@@babadoom8972 the draft situations are not for players already on contract with another team. You can't just decide to auction a player in the middle of an agreement. It's a stupid suggestion.
@@bademann1 it's stupid until it works. Transfer systems as it is right now is ludicrous.
@@babadoom8972 How would this ever work though? A club just decides certain players are up for auction, send them out to the highest bidder? Even in a draft style situation the player can decide not to sign with a team. What happens if a club "wins" an auction and then the player refuses to play for them? How do you propose we resolve that situation? What time frame do you put on each player being auctioned off? How does a club know what to bid on players when they don't know what bids will come in for other targets or for their players for sale either? It's a bad situation for clubs, and even worse for the players involved.
Those oil-dependent terrorists are destroying football and the passion in players... Even Neves retired for their money at 26yo
Regarding the Premier League introducing new rules around transfer scrutiny - don't forget the other rich person powerplay going on at the moment - the move for an external regulator
I can't decide whether the lizard pic at 15:30 was chosen due to the script, or the script was written like that as an excuse to use the lizard pic