….and anti-diving whiners who think such behavior typifies soccer should also, for the sake of consistency :
a) consider college football a huge fraud if Bill McCartney is allowed a 5th down,
b) set their baseball caps ablaze with every phantom tag of 2nd base on a double play,
c) projectile vomit each time Manu Ginobili flops to the floor,
d) realize that Americans are hardly alone in their distaste for diving.
Sir Stelios Knighthood Cover Up
Stelios was granted a knighthood but no journalist has stepped up to the plate to investigate whether it was appropriate to grant a knighthood to a Monaco resident tax exile who is extremely controversial.
In April 1991 when Stelios Haji-Ioannou, was chief executive of his father’s business Troodos Shipping, their tanker Haven blew up off Genoa, killing five crew and disgorging up to 50,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea – arguably the Mediterranean’s worst-ever ecological disaster.
The Haven was an elderly tanker, formerly the Amoco Haven, sister ship of the ill-starred Amoco Cadiz that foundered in 1978. Stelios was accused of poor maintenance and charged in Italy with manslaughter and intimidating and attempting to bribe witnesses. He faced a lengthy jail sentence and liability for hundreds of millions of pounds compensation. Stelios blamed an error by one of the surviving crew. He was acquitted but the case has dragged on ever since with subsequent appeals and demands for compensation thrown out.
Environmentalists also must be appalled that a person who was personally responsible for an increase in pollution due to his extensive use of elderly ineffiecient aircraft in the early days of easyJet prior to its merger with GO. Is rewarded with a knighthood.
Tax treatment of aviation fuel as opposed to heating oil and petrol.
Inland Revenue investigators must also see the reward as a slap in the face for hard working UK tax payers.
During the last 25 years Stelios has polluted the world. He has been accused of bribery and intimidation. He has avoided tax. He has been taken to court hundreds of times. And yet he is knighted.
When is a journalist going to make a name for themselves by investigating Stelios thoroughly and expose him? Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s success? what success is that? every single business he has started has failed with huge losses of £100s of millions. The only reason easyJet went ok was firstly because his shipping tycoon dad financed the operation and his brother and sister were co-owners. Please tell the world how successful easyInternet, easyCinema, easyCarRentals, easyWatches, easyMobile, easyMusic, easyBus, easyHotel, have been. I can inform you that they have lost a cummulative £300,000,000.00 since inception. The only reason he got his knighthood because of his donation to the Labour Party it had nothing to do with the queen. As Stelios is a Monaco resident and a tax exile he is only entitled to an honarary knighthood anyway and as soon as the newspapers catch on it will be downgraded. Or if he wants to keep it he can register for UK tax and pay millions to the Inland Revenue!
Source http://www.easy-mobiles.co.uk
I shall publicly state that the importance of my earlier mention of the possible knighthood for Mr Stelios Hadji-Ioannu was grossly exaggerated. Mentioning it passim I did not intend this to become a suggestion or representation but what initially was thought as an ironic remark turned into a correct prediction after all.
Mr Hadji-Ioannu has been knighted in the Queen’s 80th Birthday Honours list and now he is Sir Stelios.
Inasmuch as I personally don’t share the fascination with this pointless confetti of monarchy I am also extremely pleased and going to congratulate Sir Stelios wholeheartedly.
Sir Stelios received his Knighthood (Knight Bachelor to be precise) for services to Entrepreneurship (as if entrepreneurship really required any servicing). Surely achieving this honour seven years after his twin-rival Sir Richard Branson with his Virgin was not Easy. I assume most of the time it required such truly entrepreneurial qualities as crudeness, cruelty, greed, cinicism, lack of principles, selfishness and so on an so forth, since otherwise how would one survive in this dog-eat-dog business world especially starting from the position of a self-proclaimed underdog?
Well Sir, now when the goal is achieved and you can bear your knightly title with pride it is perhaps the time to switch the priorities and remember some things of a higher order like for example the most appropriate for the occasion knightly virtues (for those unaware of the concept here is a link to a website with an easy introduction to the Seven Knightly Virtues presented in easy-to-digest form). These include (among others) qualities as Justice, Generosity, Nobility, Kindness, Compassion and the like clearly incompatible with most of today’s business practices. My hope is that just to keep the appearance Sir Stelios will have to adhere to at least some of them. If this will be the case we might find some common ground or anyhow will be fighting at the same level. A noble opponent is exactly what I was looking for.
PS If such noble makeover is indeed possible at all I suggest easyGroup IP Licensing Limited should immediately register sirstelios.com and sir-stelios.com domains to facilitate future re-branding of stelios.com as well as easysir.com and easy-sir.com with a view of possible expanding of business activities of EasyGroup into this potentially lucrative market segment.