Money and success come first. Should Newcastle fans really be rejoicing with a new owner?

Lack of money, inability to bring quality, fear of relegation to the second league? All that seems to be gone. Newcastle United fans are rejoicing at the arrival of new owners and celebrating the end of Mike Ashley. Rightly so from a footballing point of view, but what about the non-footballing view?

Mike Ashley? Apparently no Newcastle fan can tell you anything good about him. The reason is obvious. He hasn’t given a toss about the club, he hasn’t invested properly in it, he hasn’t even tried to pretend otherwise.

The famous English club became a team that fell into mediocrity and even had to taste the second league. At one time. The regular and widespread protests by supporters led to nothing. They were even supported by fans of rivals, such as Everton, on many occasions.

But now, after 14 years, the Ashley era is over. Magpies fans are boisterously celebrating the arrival of a wealthy owner, the richest in the whole wide footballing world. The new owners are roughly 13 times richer than the owners of PSG.

But is there anything to rejoice about? On the one hand, yes. The club really shouldn’t be suffering. But as everyone knows, the effort to buy the club by the new Saudi owner has been a longer-term one. Indeed, the Premier League was very cautious and had terms it was unwilling to budge from.

There were fears that the club might be run by Saudi Arabia itself, or rather its Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman. Indeed, the PIF was set up in the 1970s precisely to represent the interests of the state. There has also been much discussion of television rights and pirate streams.

But the Premier League said in an official statement that there should be no problems. Not everyone agrees on that, however. Human rights are also being addressed.

Money first?

Sportswashing is a word that is cropping up more and more in the sporting environment. Essentially, it refers to trying to change one’s public image and reputation through success in sport.

And it is a word that is used quite commonly at Manchester City, PSG and now more recently at Newcastle. Indeed, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, whose personal wealth exceeds £2.5 billion, is thought to be behind the consortium that acquired Newcastle United.

Although not a king, he is the most powerful figure in his country. The King, his father, is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. As well as being Prince, he is also Minister for Defence and Deputy Prime Minister. He came to power in 2017 when his cousin Mohammad Bin Nayef was ousted from all positions, including that of crown prince.

Since he has been prince, Bin Salman says he has been waging an anti-corruption campaign. In the course of this, around 500 people have been arrested and over 2 000 bank accounts have been blocked, targeting cash assets worth around £600 billion.

Besides, he says he wants Saudi Arabia to become a country of moderate Islam, slowly introducing reforms. For example, allowing women to drive. But there’s another side to this. Increasingly, press freedom is being curtailed.

Moreover, in 2018, journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. No one has yet been convicted for his murder, and it is Bin Salman, or rather the PIF, that is being widely blamed publicly.

The whole deal has been criticised by many human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International. However, the widow of the murdered journalist, Hatice Cengiz, has also spoken out.

“The Crown Prince is now just pretending that he is not involved in this deal. We all know he is using it to clear his reputation,” Cengiz is clear. Representatives of human rights organisations then say it is impossible to separate the interests of the PIF and the state.

The PIF, according to many organisations, is complicit in serious human rights abuses, which are not uncommon in Saudi Arabia. It is also said to arrest various activists and to be involved in executions and war crimes in Yemen.

Money and the success of a beloved club are things that blind many people. Almost 95% of Newcastle fans did not address the above issues at all, in fact in the survey they expressed their clear approval of the deal regardless of any human rights.

There is talk of a big day for the city and the club in Newcastle. However, human rights organisations continue to fight for the PIF and the whole deal to be properly scrutinised once more. However, there can’t be any expectation of any change.

Caution should be in order, however. After all, one only has to look at how much influence states where human rights are undeniably violated are beginning to have in the football world.

Sources: RT, The Guardian, DailyStar, Twitter