Standard Chartered wants Liverpool to buy Asian stars

[scoobydoo]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/9442542.stm

Quotes from Standard Chartered's sponsorship chief Gavin Laws

"The real power Liverpool could do for us, and for the Premier League, is if there was a way they could nurture foreign players from Asia,"

"You see what Park Ji-sung does for Manchester United."

It's "not that important" if Liverpool once again miss out on a place in European club football's most prestigious competition because matches are played when the bank's target audience in Asia is asleep.

"Liverpool are a mid-table team with an outside chance of getting into the Europa League again."

:duh:

What makes these idiots at companies sponsoring PL clubs think that they are qualified in any way to talk about football.

If I was Dalglish I'd be on the phone to him in the morning telling him to keep his mouth shut!

 

[spurdownunder]

If I was Dalglish I'd be on the phone to him in the morning telling him to keep his mouth shut!

Tell the people effectively paying your wages to shut it? Suicide IMO. Money talks these days...

 

[talkshowhost86]

Tell the people effectively paying your wages to shut it? Suicide IMO. Money talks these days...

It's fair enough that money talks but you don't have to express such a 'fuck you' attitude to football fans as Laws has done here. I'm sure the Kopites are delighted that the clubs priorities are being based on when people in Asia go to bed!

 

[scoobydoo]

Tell the people effectively paying your wages to shut it? Suicide IMO. Money talks these days...

The Standard Chartered deal is worth £20m a year out of Liverpool's revenue of £185m. Hardly constitutes "paying their wages".

The bank pays to get it's name on the kit, not meddle in any football affairs.

 

[garyhopkins]

They are a bank. It's not that important to them if Liverpool are not playing in Europe; they are still happy to sponsor them.

That's what I read into it. Seems ok to me...

 

[Legacy]

I'm sure Levy would love it if Redknapp wanted to sign a couple of Asian players too.

The financial benefits that the exposure would bring could practically pay for the players itself. And it's not like you'd just be buying players for financial reasons, Ji-Sung Park and Chung-Yong Lee have proven that there are players out there who could massively improve our squad.

 

[mpickard2087]

I'm sure Levy would love it if Redknapp wanted to sign a couple of Asian players too.

The financial benefits that the exposure would bring could practically pay for the players itself. And it's not like you'd just be buying players for financial reasons, Ji-Sung Park and Chung-Yong Lee have proven that there are players out there who could massively improve our squad.

Went down this route before... ended up with YP Lee and before that Kazuyuki Toda!!!!!!!!!!

 

[worcestersauce]

I doubt Dagliesh will be too bothered as they've apparently also said that Liverpool should make him manager permanently.

This is always the danger with commercialism, newspapers and television adjust their content to suit or keep sponsors and advertisers so these sponsors take the attitudethat they can start dictating what should be done and how things should be run.

 

[scoobydoo]

Yeah, fair enough I suppose, I can see how having Asian players on your books would open up the Asian market. The fella at Man U is a top midfielder though and that's why he's been successful. We didn't get much joy in Asia when we signed Yipee.

I thought it was a bit disrepectful saying he didn't mind that they weren't in CL as the Asian market is asleep and that Liverpool were a mid table club with ambitions of getting in Europa League.

 

[danielneeds]

The fact is that if China eventually does produce one world class player the race to sign him would be a slugfest the likes or which would only be seen if Messi became available on a Bosman.

 

[Rout-Ledge]

Went down this route before... ended up with YP Lee and before that Kazuyuki Toda!!!!!!!!!!

YP Lee was excellent for us

 

[dvdhopeful]

YP Lee was excellent for us

Pleased someone else said that, Yiplee was hugely underrated

 

[VegasII]

Yup LYP was good.

 

[Misfit]

Another Wipey fan here. Did the work of two players for two seasons running.

 

[Partizan]

Went down this route before... ended up with YP Lee and before that Kazuyuki Toda!!!!!!!!!!

...the best left back we've had in decades

 

[RickyVilla]

...the best left back we've had in decades

You forget Timothee Atouba. Now he was a left back or was it a left mid or left winger? Anyway he played on the left. I have confused myself now

 

[guate]

I often have a chuckle when reading some of the comments on here, particularly about Benny's casual attitude when under pressure. Benny is a saint when compaired to Timothee Atouba who left me with my heart in my mouth every time he touched the ball near his own goal.
Just loved his antics when they came off though.

 

[Bill_Oddie]

It's fair enough that money talks but you don't have to express such a 'fuck you' attitude to football fans as Laws has done here. I'm sure the Kopites are delighted that the clubs priorities are being based on when people in Asia go to bed!

You've lost me.

Putting to one side the idea that Asia represents money as nothing else (the majority of the continent live in poverty, so obviously Asia must be the world's financial saviour...:shrug, logic shows the above remark - and the general British outrage to the Standard Chartered spokesman's comments - to be extraordinarily naive and ill-informed.

In Asia there are - at a very, very conservative estimate* - 160,000,000 Liverpool fans. The City of Liverpool has a population of 435,500. Discounting Everton fans and those other clubs, there are maybe a quarter of a million Liverpudlians who follow the club.

If my Mathematics GCSE taught me nothing else (and it probably didn't): 160,000,000 > 250,000.

So, what is this fuck off attitude? Why does catering to the passions and interests of the vast majority of your audience/followers/supporters/target market/whatever suggest "fuck off"?

Or are you implying that Asians are not proper fans and incapable of support or emotional attachment? Surely not.


* There are nigh on 4 billion people in Asia. Unscientifically it seems that everyone follows Premier League football: babies, the elderly, tribespeople in the jungle have scarves and replica shirts for goodness sake. Still, for the sake of argument, let's say that just 10% of these people follow the Premier League. That's four hundred million. Many studies have shown that 80% of football fans in Asia follow Liverpool or Manchester United, with a fairly even split between the two. Hence, you're looking at about 160 million Liverpool fans in Asia.

Of course, the idea that one game a season should be played in front of this audience - in addition to (not instead of) the other 38 in front of maybe a couple of dozen million fans in England - is verboten in terms of discussion, but that's another thread. The parochial nature of British sports fans is as evident in both arguments, though.

 

[talkshowhost86]

You've lost me.

Putting to one side the idea that Asia represents money as nothing else (the majority of the continent live in poverty, so obviously Asia must be the world's financial saviour...:shrug, logic shows the above remark - and the general British outrage to the Standard Chartered spokesman's comments - to be extraordinarily naive and ill-informed.

In Asia there are - at a very, very conservative estimate* - 160,000,000 Liverpool fans. The City of Liverpool has a population of 435,500. Discounting Everton fans and those other clubs, there are maybe a quarter of a million Liverpudlians who follow the club.

If my Mathematics GCSE taught me nothing else (and it probably didn't): 160,000,000 > 250,000.

So, what is this fuck off attitude? Why does catering to the passions and interests of the vast majority of your audience/followers/supporters/target market/whatever suggest "fuck off"?

Or are you implying that Asians are not proper fans and incapable of support or emotional attachment? Surely not.


* There are nigh on 4 billion people in Asia. Unscientifically it seems that everyone follows Premier League football: babies, the elderly, tribespeople in the jungle have scarves and replica shirts for goodness sake. Still, for the sake of argument, let's say that just 10% of these people follow the Premier League. That's four hundred million. Many studies have shown that 80% of football fans in Asia follow Liverpool or Manchester United, with a fairly even split between the two. Hence, you're looking at about 160 million Liverpool fans in Asia.

Of course, the idea that one game a season should be played in front of this audience - in addition to (not instead of) the other 38 in front of maybe a couple of dozen million fans in England - is verboten in terms of discussion, but that's another thread. The parochial nature of British sports fans is as evident in both arguments, though.

Only just seen this Mr Oddie. The fuck off attitude was encapsulated in this part of the article...

However, Laws thought it was "not that important" if Liverpool once again miss out on a place in European club football's most prestigious competition because matches are played when the bank's target audience in Asia is asleep.

He also said that the club's struggles on and off the pitch this season had actually benefited his company.

"I would have thought that Liverpool have had more exposure around the world this season than anybody else......without the turmoil at the club there wouldn't have been [the publicity]," he said.

"They are a mid-table team with an outside chance of getting into the Europa League again."

What he's basically saying there is 'well it's fine that Liverpool are having a bit of a nightmare because they aren't that good anyway and we're raking in cash from the supporters in Asia'.

I'm not saying for one second that the Asian football market isn't an important one but I do think it's fair enough to question a club basing its football strategy around the movements of people in a different continent.

Football should be about winning and not simply about money and comments like these from Laws are a bit of a kick in the teeth to that ideal.

My point was that yes money is a part of the game now and of course people have to think about the impact of the huge (and growing) support in Asia for the game.

But you don't have to openly show contempt for the club ("They are a mid-table team") and belittle the importance of footballing success ("without the turmoil at the club there wouldn't have been [the publicity]") whilst taking those things into consideration.

 

[stemark44]

Why do so many Asians support United and Liverpool?
Is it to do with them both wearing red rather than their football ability?