Coronavirus & Sportswashing with Murad Ahmed
Tifo Football Podcast
The Athletic
4.6 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2020
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Murad Ahmed of The Financial Times joins Tifo to discuss: the economic impact of coronavirus on football, Jim Rattcliffe and Ineos' £400m investment in sports, and a little about how he went from tech journo to sports correspondent for the FT.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the TIFO football podcast. I'm Joe Devine and today I was delighted to be joined by Murad Ahmed, sports correspondent for The Financial Times. I spoke to Murad about a few different things. |
| 0:16.6 | Firstly, the economic impact of the coronavirus on football, why clubs have to finish their leagues to avoid what could be disastrous economic consequences, |
| 0:25.4 | how the length of the lockdown is the major factor, and all of the potential ramifications of there being no football, of which there are many. |
| 0:34.6 | Secondly, we spoke about a story that Murat covered recently on Jim Ratcliffe, |
| 0:38.8 | British billionaire, who, through his company, Ineos, I can't remember, Murat told me how to |
| 0:44.4 | pronounce it properly in the podcast, but I've already forgotten. Ineos, I think it is. Through his |
| 0:48.3 | company, Ineos, Jim Ratcliffe has now spent £400 million investing and sponsoring different sports. |
| 0:55.6 | Critics of Rackleaf say that he is using sports to greenwash the environmental damage that his chemical company does, chemical |
| 1:00.6 | company. But supporters say that he's just sports mad. Where's the line? What is sports washing or greenwashing, |
| 1:07.2 | in this case? And why would someone spend £400 million on sport if it made |
| 1:12.1 | them no money? Also, we discussed the City Football Group and the Red Bull Network, why |
| 1:17.2 | clubs would want to form networks like this. And finally, I asked Morad a little bit about |
| 1:22.1 | himself, starting out as a tech reporter, how did he find himself chatting to chief executives of PL clubs governing |
| 1:29.3 | bodies and footballers working at the Financial Times, which is just an all-round cool place? |
| 1:34.9 | Before I get started, I should say that this episode is supported by The Athletic, one of the best |
| 1:40.3 | places to read about football online and personally, totally crucial to my sanity this week as I self-isolate. |
| 1:50.0 | You can get a seven-day free trial, see if you like it. |
| 1:53.2 | And if you do, you can get 50% off an annual subscription. |
| 1:58.0 | That is £2.50 per month. |
| 2:00.3 | Super affordable. Please go and do that. There is the |
| 2:02.3 | athletic.com.com.com. F.T.O.com. You can get your seven-day free trial there. Get started and |
| 2:08.2 | hopefully enjoy 50% of annual subscription. Anyway, I was really pleased that Murad joined me today |
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