Steinar Røkke

Jobber som SharePoint Konsulent hos Atea Trondheim. Sportsfanatiker og West Ham fan.

[Football Meets Data @fmeetsdata]

🇳🇴 Norway with a MONSTER week so far (+2.800 in two days‼️) and they're not over yet!

They already overtook 🇩🇰 Denmark on 13th!

[Vfynn_🥷🏼 𐙚 @Vfynn_]

Zlatan Ibrahimovic on to Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in the FIFA World Cup:

🗣️ “Listen to me carefully, because most of these people in suits have never understood the game and never will.

They create a subsidiary. Call it FIFA Forward Enterprise. Keep majority control on paper. Sell 20% to investors who have never smelled grass. Then wave $20 million in front of every federation and pretend it’s democracy.

That is not structure. That is a magic trick for lawyers. FIFA keeps the majority. FIFA keeps the board. FIFA keeps “exclusive authority” over governance, the calendar, the rules, everything that sounds important on paper. The investors get no operational role. They are only buying a slice of the cash machine. FIFA even says the investors are buying into the subsidiary, not into FIFA itself, so “nothing changes.”

I have seen this movie before. Nothing changes… until the numbers start talking. Once private money owns a permanent piece of the World Cup’s revenue, the pressure never stops. More tournaments. Bigger formats. Different calendar. Different priorities. Because investors do not care about the soul of the game. They care about return. And when the federations are already bought with the $20 million “gift” and the bigger Forward payments, who exactly is going to say no?

This is the same FIFA that spent decades selling the World Cup under the table. I remember the 2015 arrests. Swiss police walking into the hotel in Zurich and taking officials out in the early morning. Racketeering. Bribes. Money laundering. Hundreds of millions paid for television rights, for marketing rights, for World Cup votes. South Africa 2010. Qatar. The whole circus under Blatter. Jack Warner. Chuck Blazer singing to the Americans. Blatter and Platini banned for that $2 million “gentlemen’s agreement” that suddenly appeared when it was convenient. The Ethics Committee, the indictments, the years of “we are cleaning the house.”

And now the house is cleaner, they say. Now instead of brown envelopes and secret payments, we have subsidiaries, minority non-controlling stakes, permanent capital vehicles, JPMorgan valuations, and carefully selected long-term partners. Same hunger for money. Same system of buying loyalty from the 211 associations. Only the language got more expensive.

Infantino stands there and talks about democracy and opportunity. I am Zlatan. I do not need the $20 million and I do not need the speech. Most of these federations do need the money. That is exactly why this structure is dangerous. You are not offering development. You are offering a transaction: take the cash, vote yes by September, and stay quiet while pieces of the World Cup become private equity assets.

Football does not belong to FIFA. FIFA belongs to football. The moment you put shareholders inside the commercial heart of the World Cup and call it progress, you have already admitted the game is for sale. They just found a prettier way to write the contract this time.

I played at the highest level. I saw real power and real money. This is neither. This is bureaucracy protecting itself while selling the one thing that still belongs to the people who actually love the game.

Keep your structure. Keep your valuations. Keep your minority non-controlling stakes. The World Cup was never meant to have owners in suits. It was meant to be bigger than all of you.

[Lars Tjærnås @Tjaernas]

Så med fare for å høres ut som en elendig taper, men det får gå. Norge sendes hjem fra VM av England+ en fransk dommer uten integritet+ VAR, et system som gjør fotballen MYE fattigere

[West Ham United @WestHam]

"I will be forever blowing bubbles 'til I fade and die"

Forever a Hammer. ❤️

Thank you, Vladimír Coufal. ⚒

[TC @totalcristiano]

This Zinedine Zidane video is incredible.

https://t.co/LfBBkDv3jc

[TheBossRoss 🇪🇺 🧶 ❄ 📷 6x💉 @BettinaSRoss1]

This is fabulous!

How Presidents Walk.

Credit: Stefan Leonhardsberger
Via: michaelschulteshow /IG

[Aaron Hinton @aaronhinton]

Unbelievable from @SilkeborgIF who have provided the @WestHam fans with a free beer whilst collecting our tickets for the match tonight

Denmark, probably the best country in the world

[Squawka @Squawka]

◉ 6 - Erling Haaland
◉ 3 - Martin Ødegaard

8% of the Premier League goals in 2022/23 have been scored by this Norwegian duo. 🇳🇴

[West Ham United @WestHam]

All the way from Rome, Italy…

Welcome to West Ham United, Gianluca Scamacca! ✍️

[Sky Sports News @SkySportsNews]

Mark Noble was met with an incredible reception for his last home game for West Ham 👏

[Arnold Schwarzenegger @Schwarzenegger]

I love the Russian people. That is why I have to tell you the truth. Please watch and share.

[Sky Sports @SkySports]

"One of the moments of the season" 💛💙

Emotional scenes at the London Stadium as Ukraine international Andriy Yarmolenko gives West Ham the lead over Aston Villa 🇺🇦

[Kristian Stokdahl @KrStokdahl]

Artig og angrepsvillig fotball. RBK-mentalitet i praksis, vist av Nils Arne Eggen. #esnball #2fx

[Kasper Foss @Kasper_Foss]

Tikker mot gull #2022

[West Ham United @WestHam]

The first team to defeat Manchester City in the Carabao Cup in 1,827 days 😁

[West Ham United @WestHam]

You've got to love this team ❤️⚒

[TV 2 Sport @tv2sport]

En rørende hyllest til Christian Eriksen❤️ God bedring, Christian!

[West Ham United @WestHam]

The perfect way to sign off the 2020/21 season! 🤩

Highlights from our 3-0 win over Southampton ⬇️

[West Ham United @WestHam]

London's finest 👏

The boss has won @TheLFAOfficial Manager of the Year award! 🏆