Sanjay Bhandari MBE
@SanjayKickItOut
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Chair @kickitout @SatAppsCatapult NED. Adviser. Tech. Innovation. Inclusion. Sport. Music. Movies. Books. Laughter. MUFC. Cat sofa. Dog Lollipop. Views my own.
United Kingdom
Joined April 2013
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In the words of Barry Davies, “You have to say that’s magnificent”
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
@mrjamesob
"Tyrone Mings, Marcus Rashford and Harry Kane will stop taking the knee when they want to."
Listeners branded James O'Brien's response to Priti Patel's "despicable conduct" around the England team as his best yet.
@mrjamesob
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Just heard on Sky: Messi transfer could be paid for by shirt sales alone🤔
Estimated transfer cost=£500m
Ave club income per shirt =£5
So, Sales target =100m shirts
Current single year sales record =3.25m
So, would need to break shirt sale records for 31 years to break even
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A thread of some personal reflections on the booing of players Taking a Knee:
1. I am saddened but not shocked. I knew this would happen at some point but am saddened it has happened on the first weekend with fans back in stadia.
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Can anyone confirm what time the traditional post-defeat club sale rumour will be released tomorrow?
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8.Generally, the only people who oppose anti-racist gestures are racists. If Taking A Knee offends them, good. We want them to be offended.
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Why would any investor want to buy a minority stake in United and be subject to the incompetent leadership that family provides without a pathway to control or a change of control over key decisions that impact the value of the investment?
The Glazer family are considering selling a minority stake in Manchester United, according to Bloomberg
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Can someone let Jenas know that Sancho left City in the same year as Kyle Walker joined. They won’t have developed any understanding training together for City…
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This from Henry Blofeld in The Spectator is deeply disappointing. Traducing an evidence based report (4,000 witnesses) with insinuation and anecdote (spoke to a few of my mates).
As Jim Collins said, lasting change must be built on a willingness to confront the brutal facts.
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The definition of madness is repeating the same behaviour but expecting different results.
This also appears to be the definition of MUFC transfer strategies.
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All personal recognition is also a reflection of the wonderful teams we have the privilege to lead. I am lucky to lead a fantastic team. 🙏🏾
🎖️ We are proud to announce that Kick It Out Chair Sanjay Bhandari has been awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours list for services to tackling discrimination and/or promoting inclusion in football.
🌐 Read more here:
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Sadly this 💩still happens. Every fan base has an element that thinks like this and acts like this.
If we have details,
@kickitout
can pass on report to FA/UEFA
Keep going to games. This is our country too. This is our game too. This team plays for all of us.
🦁🦁🦁🏴
This was a South Asian English man's experience of going to the game yesterday unfortunately. Sad to see that some parts of the England fanbase still think like this. Sad to see racism against South Asians not taken seriously enough.
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MUFC lost to Brighton & Brentford, clubs whose owners made their fortunes from the analysis and application of data, now applying those skills to football.
Majority of Glazer family current net worth emanates from foisting debt on to the club then milking it for cash.
#Levels
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3.Every time there is greater public focus on the fight against racial discrimination, there is always a backlash. Racists rarely admit they are racists - they try to hide their backlash under a seemingly respectable cloak.
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Lord Marland owns The Cricketer Magazine. He thinks Hester is not racist because he visits and makes money from the Caribbean. By that logic, slave traders were not racist.
Cricket has some big challenges with this kind of dinosaur 🦖 🦖🦖
Bravo
@mrjamesob
'So he's not racist, because he's been to the Caribbean?'
@mrjamesob
reacts to Lord Marland and Mel Stride's 'feeble' defence of donor Frank Hester after he said Diane Abbott made him 'want to hate all black women'.
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Why didn’t UEFA ask for their ban to be enforced? Why didn’t FIFA just enforce it? Why isn’t FIFA immediate enforcement of regional bans automatic? It makes a “Zero tolerance” policy just meaningless rhetoric. More like, it’s ok for you to do it next door but not in my house. 🤷🏾♂️
FIFA promise "adequate actions" after a night of shame as England players subjected to racist abuse in Hungary
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2. Taking a Knee is a gesture that has been driven by the players and supported by the clubs and leagues. Players do it to highlight the fight for racial equality. It is explicitly not an endorsement of any specific political movement.
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We got stopped and interviewed by Wimbledon Channel Fashion team on way in to Royal Box today asking us about our choices and co-ordination of outfits. Wife very happy about that!
Glorious day and amazing line-up in Centre court today…
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9.I urge the players to continue to defy the hate and to defy the racists. Keep Taking A Knee. Keep protesting. Keep annoying racists. If you need to walk off the pitch, walk off the pitch.
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“Person pays tax on income” is now a story?
The staggering amount of tax Luke Littler will have to pay on his darts prize money - he's set to lose out on nearly HALF of his runners-up fund 😳
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4.The cloak this time is that the gestures are really in support of some political movements associated with the Black Lives Matter slogan and this is mischievously portrayed as a political disagreement. This is complete and utter nonsense.
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Welcome that Michael Vaughan has apologised for his historic tweets. As with Azeem Rafiq’s apology for his anti-Semitic tweets, this should be a start and I hope Michael will engage in a similar way.
Well done
@mrdanwalker
for not pulling any punches.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan says he is sorry for all the hurt Azeem Rafiq has gone through during the Yorkshire racism scandal.
More ⬇️
#bbccricket
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I am very excited and honoured to be taking up this role. I look forward to working with our great team
@kickitout
and our supporters across the game I love.
🗣️ “I am passionate about helping football to be a game where people of all backgrounds feel welcome."
🎉 We're delighted to announce the appointment of equality expert Sanjay Bhandari (
@SanjayB_689908
) as our new Chair.
Read more:
#KickItOut
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10.I know that there are many good people at Millwall both in the boardroom and on the terraces who are deeply upset. We will continue to work with them.
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6.BLM is a movement not a party. It is an even even bigger coalition of millions globally across political divides united by a single human rights ambition: to end racial discrimination. Of course there will be some in that movement with fringe political views on other issues.
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Bit of news from last week. Delighted and humbled to receive an honorary doctorate from
@UniOfYork
. These things always as much a recognition of the fantastic teams with whom I work 🙏🏾
Contrary to rumours, I did not win an Asian Henry VIII lookalike contest. I came second.
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Perhaps the NFL could consider compensating Kaepernick for loss of earnings and personally apologise to him - that would be a start to prove this is more than words.
NFL supremo Roger Goodell’s statement in 2018 telling the league’s athletes who wanted to protest by taking a knee to “stay in the locker room” or face disciplinary action
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focus on those fringe views to seek to add a cloak of respectability to opposing a gesture of racial unity is wilfully obtuse and disingenuous. Racists tend to be wilfully obtuse and disingenuous.
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About Last Night: Some thoughts on last night’s events and the broader context of online abuse (from 16.20 to 21.20 in here if you have 5 minutes)
#StopOnlineAbuse
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True story 👇🏾
“You need someone who understands where Azeem’s coming from.”
“Sometimes you can’t ask the right questions if you don’t have a known experience [of being racially abused].”
Laura Woods says the panel at Azeem Rafiq’s DCMS select committee hearing needed to be more diverse.
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Bit of a personal milestone anniversary today. 20 years of continuous sobriety. Celebrating in the best way possible - a week of Board meetings. Possibly cake later. Notwithstanding aggravating refereeing decisions driving me in that direction, no booze.
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Excited to announce our partnership
@kickitout
x
@SkySports
. Progress requires time, energy and resource to stay committed beyond the news cycle. Thanks to Sky for their commitment. Looking forward to working together to change the game.
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Happy Kobbie Mainoo day to all who celebrate 🙏🏾
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About last night…..
Like most England fans, waited all my life for a feeling like that. Privilege to be there.
So Good. So Good. So Good.
😃😃😃🏴🦁🦁🦁
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5.All political parties are grand coalitions of people with different views on different issues. Some Conservatives are islamophobic. Some Labour members are anti-semites. We do not tar those entire parties with the views of the fringes.
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@MrTomMcDermott
Along with Van de Beek, Ziyech and de Jong, a warning that what was created at Ajax cannot necessarily be recreated away from Ajax.
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Proudly wearing this for meetings today.
“If you can’t support us when we lose, don’t support us when we win” - The Boss
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This is what happens when the system and culture is utterly broken. The whistleblower gets the blame.
👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾
Asian cricketer was ‘silenced’ for criticising club’s blackface party | Race | The Guardian
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It’s 5 years to the day since Juanfield. Happy Mata’s Day.
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Thanks to
@GNev2
and all
@SalfordCityFC
for the support
All of us
@kickitout
are looking forward to working with you in the 2020-21 season
#WeAreSalford
🦁🔴
Salford City is delighted to announce an historic partnership with
@kickitout
for the 2020-21 season!
#WeAreSalford
🦁🔴
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Some thoughts on why EDI should be within the remit of an Independent Football Regulator
👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾
💬 "Clubs will routinely project that they represent their local communities, but do they?"
⚽ Our chair Sanjay Bhandari gave evidence to the select committee about Football's Independent Regulator on Thursday, outlining why EDI should be included in its code of governance.
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Here, Botham repeats his lazy, arrogant and ignorant response to the ICEC report preferring his own experience to empirical evidence from 4,000 participants.
Repeats his “some of my best friends are black” schtick and references Mandela in the manner of David Brent.
🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️
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Hope he enjoys the weather - it’s been absolutely bucketing down here….traditional MUFC v LFC weather
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For anyone disingenuously spouting cobblers about millionaire footballers promoting Marxism(including the Johnny Come Lately U-turners jumping on the football bandwagon), you have your reminder of why the players kneel.
Those of you with power - use it.
#StopOnlineAbuse
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If anti-racism is “political”, that implies that pro-racism is a valid political ideology. This is not about politics. It’s about shared fundamental human values.
This from
@Marcotti
👇🏾
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@Sjopinion10
That assumes he has a contract for services which requires him to be neutral on his social media account - something which is far from clear.
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A few practical thoughts on how football can tackle racism and a lack of diversity in key positions. It’s not a review or a headline grabbing initiative. It’s action. And lots of it.
Sanjay Bhandari, who heads the anti-racism charity Kick It Out, sets out his agenda for change to tackle racism
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Bit of personal news: very pleased and excited to be adding a new role to my portfolio by joining the Board
@the_LTA
Chair of
@kickitout
@SanjayKickItOut
and Discovery Inc. Executive Vice President Anil Jhingan appointed to LTA board
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Pleased to welcome Tony as our new CEO. Looking forward to working with him.
We're thrilled to announce the appointment of Tony Burnett as our new Chief Executive Officer. Tony will join us on 1st February 2021.
Read more 👉🏽
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What FIFA did is beyond failing to live their values and is a sinister abuse of power designed to silence - hence
@DFB_Team_EN
gag protest.
I guess if you hang around with autocratic dictators long enough, you start picking up some of their habits.
England and six other European countries feared their captains would be banned if they had worn the OneLove armband during the World Cup - “FIFA can do anything”
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His football was not always likeable. But he was always likeable. Typical of the man 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾
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Is this article by Mike Atherton a very subtle and reflexive part of the very problem with the cricket establishment being addressed by the ICEC report?
A few thoughts in 🧵below
👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾
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Elephants have gestated faster than the MUFC takeover.
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Will take
@yorkshirepost
@YPSport
@JayMitchinson
at their word that they are concerned to demonstrate journalistic balance. A thread of a few genuine questions in that spirit of balance:
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One of the by-products of the popularity of women’s football is that it will attract this kind of opportunistic nonsense from social commentators whose ignorance is trumped by their confidence.
It is an indicator of the growing cultural relevance of the women’s game
Only weeks ago I wrote in my Daily Mail column that women footballers embraced the beautiful game!
Lioness Lauren James has disgraced the game and the Lionesses. Lauren James should be red carded from the England team - for good.
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@MrTomMcDermott
Ultimately, the management are required to deliver a dividend to the shareholders. That impacts every decision as it is the primary business purpose of MUFC. Contrast to Chelsea and City whose primary purpose is success on the pitch.
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When people say (mostly unfairly) that football has no morals, this is the kind of decision that gives that view fuel.
🤷🏾♂️
Unbelievable West Ham are starting Kurt Zouma. Truly disgraceful decision.
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This isn’t about western and Middle Eastern values colliding. It’s about
@FIFAcom
failing to keep its promises on living its values and ensuring
@FIFAWorldCup
is welcoming to all. Instead, actively silencing people. Shameful.
@FIFAcom
- unfit to govern
Infantino🤡 - unfit to lead
'Clearly, I wasn't going to take my hat off... I pointed out FIFA had made lots of comments about supporting LGBT rights.'
Former Wales footballer
@LauraMcAllister
has told ITV News that security at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium refused to let her enter with a rainbow bucket hat.
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We are looking for a new CEO to lead the charity through a period of significant change in football. Find out more below:
We're looking for someone with exceptional leadership skills to join Kick It Out as our new CEO.
Find out more and apply here 👉🏽
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For those genuinely interested in some more history behind Taking A Knee. It goes beyond BLM, beyond Kapernick, beyond MLK at Selma and dates back to peaceful campaigns to abolish slavery over 200 years ago.
It’s definitely not from Game of Thrones.
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Wisden has been going for 158 years.
For 1 year, reflective of a seismic 12 months, there is a focus on anti-racism. Apparently this is ‘overkill’ and dismissed as ‘woke’.
Does cricket really want to change? Can it if this is the reflex of the cricket establishment?
Simon Heffer: Wisden has been turned into a depressingly woke political pamphlet
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If some of our best known pundits are emphasising physique over technique, what is the chance that scouts up and down the country are doing the same?
Echoes the kind of stereotypes we have heard in the context of assessing young South Asian talent…
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30 min drive home from getting diwali treats with the smell of freshly cooked samosas in the car.
#Breakfast
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Here’s a summary for anyone unable to read this:
1. I never saw it.
2. Nobody asked me for my opinion.
3. I don’t know anyone who gave evidence so it must be incomplete.
4. I didn’t see it so it didn’t happen.
5. Some of my best friends are black.
"'I read bits of the report and I just threw it down on the floor in the end because in my eyes, it’s a nonsense,' Botham said. 'It was a complete and utter waste of money that could have been well spent on other things within the game'" |✍️
@legsidelizzy
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I assume the next round is judges’ houses with 2 bidders each being mentored by Joel and Avram around a swimming pool before winners go to the live shows?
Manchester United’s bankers have set a deadline of April 28 for what will be third and final bids.
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@MrTomMcDermott
Also don’t buy this nonsense about having tried the world class manager route. LvG and Jose clearly past their peak when they arrived.
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This should not go unnoticed. There are other discrimination and inclusion challenges in football which sometimes get crowded out of media attention.
#TakeAStand
against all forms of discriminatory abuse.
FA ready to launch homophobic abuse investigation... could lead to 12 game ban. Homophobia and anti semitism, the two forms of discrimination in football no-one even talks about.
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This is not a Question of recruitment decisions in 2023. It’s a question of 10+ years of mismanagement so that you don’t have the budgets to go for those kind of players.
Without a capital injection, talk of titles is just fantasy.
🤔 “The recruitment is questionable.”
🏴 “That club should’ve bought Harry Kane. £200m, go get him & Rice!”
Alan Pardew criticises
#MUFC
for their recent transfer recruitment 🔴
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Lots to be done but we want to be a galvanising force for change. 👇🏾
NEW: We're pleased to launch our new three-year strategy as part of our ambition to drive positive and inclusive change in football.
Read more 👉🏽
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No defender had impact of VVD?
MUFC signed Rio after a season of Laurent Blanc in 2002 then not only won the league in 2003 but 6 Premier leagues and a champions league.
Torres scored 3 goals in 15 games against Vidic.
Recency bias is so real, real ones don’t forget how good Vidic was 😂
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Graves and
@YorkshireCCC
bring back someone found to have been dismissive of racism claims.
Grimly, predictably, stubbornly tin-eared & regressive.
YCCC has done good work over last 2 years but this will undermine confidence.
When people show you who they are, believe them
Yorkshire return beckons for individual "dismissive" of racism complaints; former CEO, Mark Arthur | The Cricketer
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Well said
@Kingcanners
and well done for being open-minded in the face of abuse 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Paul Canoville has met three of Chelsea's four shortlisted bidders and has told them more needs to be done to tackle anti-black racism
#cfc
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Novak here serving at the speed of Joel and Avram Glazer’s decision making.
Get on with it…..
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@TherealNihal
When the “coloured” comment is maybe not even the worst thing he said today...a few thoughts:
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Asian under-representation on the pitch is arguably the single biggest anomaly in English football.
Thanks
@AnwarU01
@Mal_1993
@yandhanda
for sharing your thoughts and looking forward to what you
@Towno10
and the other members of the Board can help us to achieve together. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Despite British Asians making up 7% of the whole population, just 0.25% of professional footballers are from a British Asian background.
Our new Player Advisory Board will look at ways we can support British Asian players at all level of the game
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Glazernomics - it’s only incompetent if you want to win on the pitch. If the goal is to deliver cashflow and capital appreciation for the owners, it’s pretty successful.
Depressing 🧵
👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾
On 10 August 2012 the Glazers listed Man Utd on New York Stock Exchange, with opening share price of $14. If you had invested £1,000 in
#MUFC
shares that day on 10th anniversary they're worth £814. Same amount invested in Juventus is worth £2,000, F1 £2,564, Atlanta Braves £1,585
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@JackPittBrooke
Ironically, he commits the very intellectual sin of which he complains (abstracting to generality rather than addressing particularity). He never addressed the highly specific claims reported and only referred to the abstract generalisation of requiring specificity.
Just saying.
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England goalkeeper is amazing. Where do I get her shirt?
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Sure others deserve it more, but grateful for the recognition and these things are always a recognition of the broader team I have there honour to represent. 🙏🏾
Still lots more work to do…
Congratulations to
@SanjayKickItOut
of
@kickitout
for winning the Diversity Champion Award at the
#GG2Awards
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@MrTomMcDermott
His teams require 11 players working together. You will rarely get that in a Harlem globetrotters project like PSG - he wouldn’t have made a blind bit of difference to PSG tonight. Politics picks the team…
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We need to protect people who play, watch and work in football from the vile scourge of online abuse.
The era of self-regulation by social media has failed. The Online Safety Bill is a welcome and promising step in creating true accountability.
@NadineDorries
@CPhilpOfficial
👇🏾
We welcome the Online Safety Bill and hope that it will receive strong support from MPs during this week’s Second Reading in the House of Commons.
Read our statement 👉🏽
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Any excuse to drag out this Peru 1970s shirt and channel my inner Teofilio Cubillas for
#FootballShirtFriday
Please support the
@BobbyMooreFund
today to help
@CR_UK
in the fight against bowel cancer.
Go to or simply text SHIRT to 70180 to donate £5
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Errrrr…they won’t get the money back from shirts as the maths doesn’t add up. shirt deals at that level are primarily license deals not unit sales deals. Here’s a rudimentary analysis from last year at last years putative costs. May take less than 31 years on true cost..
PSG will get their Messi money back in shirt sales in six months. Great business.
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This👇🏾
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This is the kind of market innovation that will return MUFC to the top. Rather than performing evaluations before the start of a 3 month transfer window like everyone else, do it with 2 weeks left when nobody else is doing it and you know what’s left in the bargain aisle.
✅ There are ongoing internal evaluations (for other midfield targets inside
#MUFC
). And for sure, a new midfielder is coming
@FabrizioRomano
@caughtoffside
👀🔴
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Wow - this is some lazy racist stereotyping that does not align with grassroots participation data from someone with authority over the player pathway….is he a relic from the 1970s?
Crystal Palace lead scout…how long you been carrying this viewpoint? This ain’t even unconscious bias….
@CPFC
you may wanna have a word with Michael
#FA
#SouthAsian
#Football
#Bias
#Scouting
#PL
#CPFC
#Premierleague
#Grassroots
#TalentID
#unconsciousbias
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A short extract from a long and really enjoyable conversation with
@MirrorDarren
for
@cnnsport
- thanks to you both for maintaining the spotlight and holding the gaze on a tough topic beyond just reacting to incidents
The great work done by
@kickitout
ranges from education to helping young people into football. Yet they are often attacked over the game's struggle to deal with racism. Chairman
@SanjayKickItOut
says name change "up for grabs" to address criticism. Full interview
@cnnsport
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Hey
@JackGrimmer
@wwfcofficial
Appreciate this was probably sent innocently to raise a laugh
BUT
Domestic violence is rising during lockdown. If half of viewers donated £1 we could all help
@womensaid
RT to raise awareness.
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