This discussion reminds me of the moral blackmail this club suffered in 1985 when it was made abundantly clear to the board and fans that decrying the grotesquely unfair ban from European competition was an abomination in the light of the horrific deaths of 39 people in Brussels. The message was clear: how dare Evertonians worry about football-related issues when people have died.
Now we are set up to be the sacrificial lamb once more. By all means purge English football and Everton Football Club of malign influence from hostile and malevolent states. But why we would line up as a fanbase to uniquely sacrifice ourselves while the malign influence of other hostile and malevolent states is waved through and actively encouraged at the highest government levels beggars belief.
This issue goes way beyond Everton and dodgy Russian money. It is a problem across the entirety of football. The despots who run Manchester City are not "linked" to despots like Usmanov. They ARE the despots. And they are mild compared to who has just taken over at Newcastle.
I'm not going to cry over Everton if we now find ourselves bankrupt and fall through the divisions as a result of sanctions. It would pretty much copper-fasten the story of Bill Kenwright as the most disastrous "custodian" in the history of the club. He couldn't even sell us to a proper untouchable despot. But by the same token, I think only an idiot would willingly go along with the prevailing winds that singles out little old Everton while allowing headchoppers and proven human rights abusers to hold sway at rival clubs. Is the message that it's okay to bomb Yemen but not Ukraine?
Evertonians are forever saying we do not get a fair crack of the whip - from referees, officials, etc. Yet here we are passively allowing our club to be singled out (has Abramovich been sanctioned yet?) and, once again, treated differently from others. Kick Usmanov out - but let's insist that MBS is kicked out at Newcastle and City find new, less blood-soaked, benefactors. Or we can take up station on the moral high ground of the Conference, or whatever it is called these days, and admire our own purity and selflessness while the, admittedly, corrupt game goes on without us anyway.
The entire edifice of football is corrupt. Pulling down Everton while allowing the rest of the vast framework to remain standing is self-defeating, self-aggrandising idiocy. Moshiri and Usmanov should be forced out along with the other parasites, many far far worse, in this league and game. But let's not make complete victims of ourselves so that we feel superior when we turn up to play Boreham Wood, not in the FA Cup, but in the National League.
