Spotlight On Shinawatra

My apologies for the infrequent posts of the last few days, technical issues, and it seems that shouting swear words at your laptop is not the quickest way to fix a problem. However, it is all sorted now, and we get back to what matters, football.

It seems that a couple of Human Rights groups have voiced their concerns over Thaksin Shinawatra's ownership of Manchester City. The 'Human Rights Watch' wrote in to the Premier League voicing concerns over Shinawatra's human rights record during his time as Prime Minister of Thailand, and Amnesty International have also raised doubts over Shinawatra. The main charges against him are that, during a 'war on drugs', his forces carried out a large number of extrajudicial killings, and that he allowed Thai forces to use any means neccessary to stamp out insurgency in the South of Thailand.

Now, none of these charges have been proven, and the 'fit and proper person' test for the Premier League follows the law in this country, in that a man is innocent until proven guilty. Very admirable in theory, but sadly this does not always work in practice. Shinawatra may not have been charged, but this does not mean he is innocent, and as far as I have gathered, these charges against him have a factual basis. Now it does not matter if you believe in zero tolerance against drug dealers (though I doubt that every person killed was an actual drug dealer), or if the other corruption charges against him are politically motivated, the fact is, no-one with these sort of allegations over them should be allowed to own a Premiership Club.

He may turn out to be innocent (though I very much doubt this), but until he has faced his corruption charges, and managed to clear his name, he should not be allowed to own a Premiership Club. There will be a democratically elected Thai Government in power soon, and when they are in power he should be able to face his charges and prove his innocence. The Premier league should have told him to come back and bid for City when he had faced all his charges, and if this never happened, then hard luck mate. Instead they have taken his money and we have yet more controversy in the beautiful game. I'm afraid that in this case, it would have been better for innocence to be proven rather then guilt.

On to other news, Reyes has left Arsenal for Atletico Madrid in a 6 million pound deal. He is a great talent, but unfortunately could never adapt to the British culture and, more importantly, the British weather. Personally, I don't know what he's talking about, it's been nothing but sun, sun and more sun this summer. Who needs Spain, when you have floods to avoid? Our weather keeps you on your toes. Anyway, there is one moment of his I will never forget, he was on the wing, at a standstill, with an opposition player in front of him and without touching the ball once, he used his body to send the opposition player in completely the wrong direction before setting off into the deserted space. It was such a great piece of skill, and I hope that he rediscovers his best form at Atletico.

The Tevez saga might be settled out of court, but if not, a court date has been set for the 22nd of August. I suspect that some sort of deal will be hammered out before then, and despite everything that West Ham have said, it looks like they are the ones most eager to settle out of court. Expect some sort of agreement in the next week or so.

There are a few transfer stories doing the rounds but nothing finalised completely yet, apart from Tottenham signing Kevin-Prince Boateng from Hertha Berlin in a 5 million pound deal. I've already mentioned him before, but just in case, he is a very highly rated German midfielder who is only 20 years old. He's definitely one for the future, but central midfield is definitely the area Tottenham need to work on if they are to challenge the big 4 this season. Zokora didn't do very well last season, though he may improve this season, but he is still not the creative force that Tottenham need. Boateng is a good signing but he is not going to have a huge impact this season, meaning that they may find themselves struggling in the midfield area against the likes of Scholes, Fabregas, Essien and Gerrard.

And that is that for tonight. Once again, apologies for the technical difficulties, I hope that they will never be seen again. Good night sports fans.