I know I recycle this riff more regularly than anything similar achieved to date by Noel Gallagher, but I’m really not sure English football can sink any lower.

And my anger at the moment is as much towards the fans as towards the self-serving cunts that now seem to own all of the country’s clubs.

If there is hope, it has been alleged, it lies in the proles.

So what did the proles of Newcastle do to demonstrate their anger at, er, their club owner running their club on financially prudent lines?  Did they rise up in solidarity and boycott the club’s next home game, as they said they would?  Did they bollocks.  Over 50,000 spunked £30+ each to watch the visit of Hull City – 3,000 MORE than at their previous home game while the Sainted King Kev was still in charge…

The vast majority of Manchester City’s fans, meanwhile, were all too willing to jump aboard Thaksin Shinawatra’s gravy train 14 months ago despite the man’s reprehensible political record.  Having waved that nasty little man off, with a couple of hundred million quid of beautifully laundered money in his pockets, what did they do?  They donned Arab dress to welcome another billionaire owner who knows nothing about football (you wait 127 years for a billionaire and then two come along at once…) with a questionable record on human rights and had some “comedy” £500 billion notes printed up to wave at Roman Abramovich.

Having just seen the name of the club they profess to love sullied by its association with a morally bankrupt man on the verge of a conviction for tax evasion and corruption, they’ve not only got into bed with another apple pie regime but they’ve lubed themselves up, too.

For the uninitiated, and according to Amnesty International:

The United Arab Emirates retains the death penalty…

In December 2007, the United Arab Emirates abstained in the vote in the General Assembly on resolution 62/149 calling for a moratorium on executions and, on 2 February 2008, it was one of the 58 states that signed a statement of disassociation with the resolution, placing on record their “persistent objection to any attempt to impose a moratorium on the use of the death penalty or its abolition in contravention to existing stipulations under international law”.

In all of the Emirates, except Dubai, flogging sentences are imposed on those caught having “illicit sex”…

Amnesty International has regularly raised with the authorities reports of persons – both Emirati and foreign – arbitrarily arrested and held incommunicado for prolonged periods of time, commonly in undisclosed locations where they may face torture and other ill treatment. Those responsible are usually said to be members of Amn al-Dawla (State Security)…

Other forms torture and other ill treatment documented by Amnesty International have included sleep deprivation, suspension by the wrists or ankles, severe beatings to the soles of the feet, the use of electric shocks to various parts of the body, and threats of sexual violence…

Women in the United Arab Emirates continue to suffer the impact of discriminatory laws and practices which affect most aspects of their life, including marriage and the choice of marriage partner, dissolution of marriage and child custody, and inheritance…

In the course of 2007, the government failed to respond to UN human rights bodies in respect to requests for access and on individual cases raised in 2006…

There are also reports of restrictions on the right to freedom of expression…

Political parties do not exist in the United Arab Emirates; political dissent is not tolerated and those targeted for arrest include Islamists or those critical of the human rights situation in the country.

All but a few of those fans so vocally initially opposed to the Glazers’ takeover of Manchester United seem to have come to terms with their new owners now that another Premier League title and European Cup are in the Old Trafford trophy room.

Liverpool Football Club is being turned into a laughing stock, their new owners having reneged on their pre-purchase pledge not to load the debt financing for the deal onto the club itself and proving themselves incapable (or, more accurately, personally unwilling) to finance the oft-promised new stadium.  A full 1,000 Liverpool fans summoned up the energy to protest at the weekend – after all, the club’s joint top of the table…

Suddenly, Deadly Doug Ellis is beginning to resemble Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi.

So fuck it: I’m out. Mr. Scudamore, Mr. Murdoch, Mr. Abramovich:

I’m not scared:
I’m outta here.