bringing Uzbekistan home (updated)

I’m very late to this and don’t have a whole lot to add to what Justin has to say about it. There’s a useful transatlantic view here.

I’m not a regular reader of Craig Murray’s site and it’s quite likely that I’d have missed his allegations if it hadn’t been for Usmanov’s merry band of legal marauders. Now they’re widely available to anyone prone to creative googling. Some details are set out on page 366 of Murder in Samarkand. Despite claiming that the book is libelous, Usmanov’s people have not tried to sue it off the market, so the relevant information is freely available offline.

UPDATE - mix and match time. The BBC has a handy guide to the fit and proper person rule set by the FA for would-be directors, which sounds like an interesting research project. This perhaps is the most relevant section:

He is convicted on indictment of an offence set out in the Appendix 12 Schedule of Offences or he is convicted of a like offence by a competent court having jurisdiction outside England and Wales

...followed by a long list of specific offenses, mostly in relation to financial shenanigans. I believe that Mr Usmanov was a guest of the Central Committee at some stage in his career, on what he claims are political charges.