By unprecedented you mean "convenient". i.e. exactly the same amount needed to get the club out of a FFP hole. lol
Hopefully the planned naming rights deal itself wasn't massively overinflated and it can be plugged with other sources and/or a different naming rights partner.
I look at it this way. Surely an ever-present PL club with consistent 40k+ crowds in a market where broadcasts rights are still shooting up can manage this project without someone like Usmanov? You're big enough and ugly enough to pull this thing off. Get this beautiful thing built without any grubby associations. And I reckon that'd be better in the long run.
I'm staying optimistic for ya'll anyway.
I disagree that it's either things go back to normal or doom and gloom.
We're in a new normal. imo Russia will remain sanctioned for a good while, so these sponsorships are gone now. Forget about them. Get on with finding some new sponsors.
I'm not so sure sanctions are going to be in for as long as the were against the USSR and South Africa. The world is a different place now, the Russians have sampled what freedoms western lifestyles can offer, when the Iron Curtain stopped such things, they knew no better. Now, all transactions are electronic, to remove this from Russia is huge and will impeded their economy, the boycott go their fuel is huge, the distribution of real news is a much freer exercise, Russian's will gradually get to hear what was done in their name, Putin will go, he will be forced out by the middling ranks
